PALESTINE Through the Stereoscope A TOUR CONDUCTED BY JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D. D. Author of Manual of Biblical Geography, Normal Lessons for the Sunday School, etc., etc. Formerly S. S. Editor for the Methodist Episcopal Church. Supt. of the Normal Dept, of Chautauqua Assembly AND CHARLES FOSTER KENT, Ph. D. Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature, Yale University; author of “History of the Hebrew People,” “Biblical Geography and History,” etc. KEYSTONE VIEW COMPANY MEADVILLE, .... PENNA. Copyright, 1914, By UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD New York and London [entered at stationers’ hall] Stereographs copyrighted in the United States and foreign countries MAP SYSTEMS Patented in the United States, August 21, 1900 Patented in Great Britain, March 22, 1900 Patented in France, March 26, 1900. S.G.D.G. Switzerland, Patent Number 21,211 All rights reserved Printed in the United States First Revised Editioi TABLE OF CONTENTS PACK Introduction xiii Instructions xx Travelling in the Holy Land xxiii PART I— A TRIP TO JERUSALEM Regular Tour, I — 30 30 positions Supplementary Tour, 2a — 29a 31 positions POSITIONS TAKEN Jaffa PACK I 3080 Jaffa, the Joppa of the Bible times z 2 3081 The Bazaar of Jaffa on a market day 5 2a 3082 The house of Simon the Tanner. Jaffa 7 3 3276 A caravan of camels in the narrow road approaching Jaffa 9 3 * 10852 Relief map of Palestine by the Palestine Ex. Soc. — vertical scale 3}^ times greater than horizontal.. . 10 Plain of Sharon 3 b 3083 " Roses of Sharon ", on the Plain of Sharon 13 4 3242 Plowing in the fertile Plain of Sharon. Lydda 14 4a 3084 Lydda. the Old Testament "Lod" x6 4 b 1 0912 Gezer from N. W.. site of Canaanite and Macca- bean forts 18 4 C 10964 Modein. the home of Judas Maccabeus, view S. E. toward Jerusalem 19 5 10935 Pass of Upper Beth-horon from S., scene of Hebrew victories 20 5 * 3086 The village of Am was (Emmaus) 21 Sb 1081 X Kirjath-jearim, long the resting-place of the sacred Ark 23 Mizpah 5 c 10871 Mizpah from the southwest, an old center of Hebrew history 24 From Mizpah, N. over hill of Gibeon to Ramallah. . 25 iii Sd 10944 IV CONTENTS Mizpah 6 10872 Looking S. E. from Mizpah to Jerusalem four miles away 6a 1 1401 Ain Karim, supposed birthplace of John the Baptist, among hills S. from Jaffa road 6b 10945 Valley of Rephaim, old Hebrew battleground; Jerusalem at N. E Jerusalem 7 10907 Jerusalem from Mount Scopus at the N. E., showing nearly the whole city 8 10909 Damascus Gate in N. wall; S. past Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem 9 3089 The Jaffa Gate — from outside — Jerusalem 10 10908 Jerusalem on the W. — view S. from new tower over the walls 10a 1 1400 Gihon cattle market and Jerusalem’s west wall, N. E. from the Bethlehem road 10b 3261 Jerusalem, from across the Valley of Hinnom to Olivet, looking N. E IOC 3207 The Pool of Siloam — outside Jerusalem 11 3093 The Valley of the Kedron and village of Siloam 11a 3250 Jerusalem, “beautiful for situation”, from S. E., showing Temple site 12 3095 Tombs of the Prophets, in the King’s Dale, Valley of Kedron, Jerusalem 13 3096 Garden of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives, from the eastern wall — Jerusalem 14 3ii4 Ancient olive trees, Garden of Gethsemane, near Jerusalem 15 3ii3 “Unclean! Unclean!” Wretched lepers outside Jerusalem 16 3097 Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, from Mount of Olives 17 1 1086 Gethsemane road to St. Stephen’s Gate, thronged with pilgrims; W. from Olivet to Jerusalem 17a 3291 St. Stephen’s Gate, eastern doorway of Jerusalem — from without 18 3109 The Dome of the Rock, site of Solomon’s Temple, Jerusalem 19 3110 The Sacred Rock, where the Temple Altar stood, Mount Moriah, Jerusalem 19a 3300 Beautiful Mosque el-Aksa, S. from the Temple area, Jerusalem 19b 3111 The Pulpit of Omar, Mosque el-Aksa, Jerusalem. . . PACK 26 27 28 30 32 35 37 39 41 42 43 45 47 49 51 52 54 56 57 59 61 64 64 CONTENTS V Jerusalem I9C 10578 "'Old Temple grounds with Olivet and the Bethany road at the E., Jerusalem 20 10976 Pilgrims in the Temple area; N. from el-Aksa to Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem 20a 10743 Solomon's Temple — the famous Schick model 20b 10744 Herod’s Temple — reproduction of the famous Schick model at Jerusalem 20C 10579 From the Temple area (S.W.) over modem Jewish quarter of Jerusalem 2od 3285 Solomon’s Stables, Jerusalem 21 3104 The Jews’ wailing-place, outer wall of Solomon’s Temple, Jerusalem 22 10838 Inside a Jewish synagogue, showing Holy Place and reader’s platform 22a 3103 The beautiful Church of the Armenian Christians, Jerusalem 23 10963 Crowded bazaar and thoroughfare of David Street, view E. to Olivet 23a H399 A money changer and his patrons just inside the Jaffa gate at Jerusalem 23b 3259 Ancient pool of Hezekiah — N. E. to Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem 24 3098 Christian Street — motley life in the Holy City’s bazaar district, Jerusalem 25 3099 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem 25a 11627 The Stone of Anointment, Church of the Holy Sepulchre 26 3100 The Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem 27 3101 Easter procession of Greek Patriarch, entering Church of Holy Sepulchre 27a 11398 Devout pilgrims carrying a great cross through the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem 28 3105 The “New” Calvary, outside the Damascus Gate, from the northern wall 28a 10979 Rock-hewn tomb in cliff outside Jerusalem — possible tomb of Jesus 29 3106 “The Tomb of our Lord", New Calvary, outside of Jerusalem 29a 3107 A tomb with the stone rolled away (Tomb of the Kings), Jerusalem 30 3091 Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives — E. from the Latin Hospice, Jerusalem PAGE 65 66 67 69 7i 73 74 76 78 79 81 82 83 85 87 88 89 90 91 93 94 96 97 VI CONTENTS PART n— SOUTHERN JUDEA, THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN Regular Tour, 31 — so 20 positions Supplementary Tour, 32a — 50a 27 positions 31 1 1397 Jerusalem, the center of Christian history, seen W. 32 10842 from tower on Olivet From Olivet E. over the Wilderness, Jordan Valley 32a 1087s and Dead Sea to Moab From Olivet S. over Judean hills to Frank Mountain . 33 Bethany 3 ii 5 Bethany, where our Lord was anointed by Mary — S. 33 a 10906 from eastern slope of Olivet Jerusalem from S., showing Ophel, with Tyropoen 33 b 11396 and Kedron Valleys The traditional tomb of Rachel beside the Jerusalem- 34 Bethlehem 10937 Bethlehem highway David's City, Bethlehem, S. E. to Frank Mountain. . 34 a 10874 Hills and fields of Judea, N. from Bethlehem, show- 34 b 3181 ing road to Jerusalem Main street of Bethlehem, leading from the Church 35 3118 of Nativity, looking N. W Bethlehem of Judea, the birthplace of Jesus — W. from 36 3117 the Church of Nativity Church of the Nativity, built where Jesus was born, \ 36a 1 1395 Bethlehem of Judea The spot where the manger stood; grotto below 36b 324S Church of Nativity Shepherds in the “Field of the Shepherds” — Bethle- 36c 11084 hem Vineyards and watch-tower, showing Church of 37 3119 Nativity and Bethlehem, N. W Barley harvest near Bethlehem 37 a 10877 Arabs and their tents in Wilderness of Tekoa; out- 3 « 1 1394 look E. to Bethlehem A shepherd in David’s home-country leading flock 39 Hebron 3120 over Judean hills Hebron, the home of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, U° 3121 from the E Mosque Machpelah, the traditional burial-place of 40a 10943 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob The King’s Pool, the ancient reservoir in the heart of 105 US 117 118 Hebron 127 CONTENTS Vll Hebron page 40b 10753 Ancient tree traditionally known as Abraham’s Oak, near Hebron 128 40c 10817 A Bedouin boy and his mother at a camp in the wil- derness 129 40d 10959 Hill site of ancient Mareshah, S. W. beyond modern Beit Jibrin 130 40e 10857 The Shephelah and Philistine plain W. from Tell San- dahannah 130 41 10856 Gaza, lowland stronghold of the Philistines, from the S. E 132 42 10939 Scene of Goliath's defeat. Valley of Elah (N. W.) .... 134 43 3310 Sheikh el Rachid and his escort, most famous Bedouins of Palestine 136 Wilderness of Judea 43a 3122 The lonely Convent of Mar Saba, Wilderness of Judea 137 43b 3123 Picturesque Palestine — the Wilderness of the Scape- goat 139 44 3130 Marvelous gorge of Brook Cherith and old Convent . . 140 Jericho 44a 1058 1 Jordan Valley and distant Moab, E. from old Jericho- Jeru salem road 142 45 3129 Plain of the Jordan — S. E. from the ruins of ancient Jericho 143 45a 1 1393 Modern Jericho and its gardens, with traditional Mount of Temptation at N. W 145 46 10924 Ruins of Jericho, showing buildings Oeft) and city wall (right) 146 46a 11362 Fountain of Elisha, miraculously freshened by the prophet, near Jericho 148 The Jordan and The Dead Sea 47 3126 Baptizing in the Jordan 149 47a 3327 Coptic pilgrims from Egypt, bathing in the holy waters of the Jordan 152 47b 10887 Lower bed of the Jordan, N. W. from Moab cliffs to Judean Highlands 152 48 3124 On the north shore of the Dead Sea looking S. W . . . 154 48a 10892 South from Engedi along the Dead Sea shore to Jebel Usdum (Salt Mountain) 156 48b 10890 Wilderness S. of the Dead Sea — N. W. from Ain et Beida to Jebel Usdum 157 Vlll CONTENTS East of the Jordan page 48c 10889 From lonely Machaerus — John’s prison — W. across Dead Sea to Judea 158 49 10923 Mt. Nebo from Wady Ayun Musa, showing road to Jordan, Syria 159 49a 10896 The brook Jabbok (Zerka, the blue river) at one of the main fords, Syria 160 49b 1 1402 Es Salt, from the south; a Peraean town still full of homes and business 16 1 50 1089s Jerash (Gerasa) in eastern Gilead; looking N. over Roman ruins, Syria 162 50a 11391 From Ramoth Gilead : N. W. over Jordan valley toward distant Carmel, Palestine 164 PART ni— FROM THE JORDAN THROUGH SAMARIA Regular Tour, 51 — 67 17 positions Supplementary Tour, 51a — 66a 13 positions 51 10926 Old road from Jericho to Ai (west), among the hills of Benjamin, Palestine 5ia 10936 Scene of Jonathan’s victory at Michmash, Wady es Suweinit, Palestine 5ib 10960 Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town — N.E. toward Jor- dan and Gilead, Palestine Sic 10934 Gibeah of Saul, N. from field below the little modern village 52 Ramah and Ramallah 10933 From Ramah, traditional home of Samuel, N. E. toward Gilead, Palestine <53 10850 Little folks studying at the village school in Samuel's home town, Ramah J3a 3268 Bridegroom and friends going to fetch the bride, Ramallah 54 3139 Women grinding at the mill, Palestine 55 3416 Bread-making in the court of a Syrian home, Pales- tine 55a 10807 An Oriental feast of rice and lamb at Beeroth, Pales- tine 55b 3333 Churning butter in a goatskin, Beeroth, Palestine. . Bethel 55c 10928 Rocky Bethel and its olive groves, from the south, Palestine 56 3132 Gathering tares from wheat, in the stony fields of Bethel, Palestine 167 168 169 170 172 173 175 176 177 179 180 180 182 CONTENTS IX Bethel pack 56a 10870 Hill country of Ephraim, from near Bethel, N. W. over Ain Jebrud 183 57 1093 1 Shiloh, scene of old religious assemblies, from the S. E., Palestine 184 Gerizim 58 10868 Gerizim and hills of southern Samaria; S. from Mount Ebal over Sychar 186 59 1 1390 Mount Gerizim, where Samaritans worshipped, S. W. from entrance to Jacob’s Well, Palestine 188 60 3136 A Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Palestine 190 6 1 1095s The Passover, as celebrated by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim 192 Shechem 62 3238 Shechem, an early center of Hebrew history, looking S. W. from Mount Ebal 62a 10952 Shechem. where the Hebrew empire was divided. E. past Mount Ebal 63 10956 Samaritan High Priest, and old Pentateuch roll at Shechem. Palestine 64 Samaria 11389 Samaria, once proud and beautiful center of northern kingdom, seen from S., Palestine 64a 3141 Ancient royal city of Samaria, where Philip preached , Christ, looking W 64b 11388 Stately stairway approach to Herod’s temple of 1900 years ago; Samaria, Palestine 65 1 1093 Samaria's magnificent basilica with apse at farther end, seen from S. W 65a 3142 Herod’s street of columns — the remains of magnifi- cent Samaria, Palestine 66 Dothan 11387 Fertile plain of Dothan, S. W. from hill where the town stood in Elisha's day, Palestine 66a 3144 “Joseph’s Well” — Dothan, Palestine Caesarea 67 9626 Caesarea, where Paul was tried before Felix, Festus and Agrippa 209 PART IV— GALILEE, MOUNT LEBANON AND DAMASCUS Regular Tour, 68 — 100 33 positions Supplementary Tour, 69a — 100a 29 positions Mount Carmel 68 3158 Haifa and the Bay of Akka, E. from Mount Carmel, Palestine 213 X CONTENTS Mount Carmel page 69 10953 Rock of Elijah’s altar on Mount Carmel; view over Esdraelon Plain 214 69a 315S River Kishon, where Ehjah slew the prophets of Baal; and Mount Carmel beyond 216 Megiddo 217 218 70 10914 The Mound of Megiddo, from the S. E., Samaria, Palestine 70a 10915 Ruined houses and public buildings recently ex- cavated at old Megiddo 71 3216 Four thousand years unchanged — patriarchal life in Palestine to-day Mount Gilboa 71a 3348 Mount Gilboa and Valley of Jezreel, the scene of Saul’s defeat — from the citadel, Bethshan, Pales- tine 71b 3146 “ By the side of still waters” — on the Plain of Jezreel, Palestine 72 10861 N. from Gilboa over Jezreel Plain to the Sea of Galilee, Palestine 73 10831 Gideon’s battlefield and Hill of Moreh, N. from Jez- reel, Palestine 73a 3145 Gideon’s Spring, Mount Gilboa, Palestine 74 10862 Broad, sunny Plain of Esdraelon and Mount Carmel, W. from Mount Gilboa 74a 11386 Endor, home of the storied witch, and its broad out- look N. W. over Esdraelon Plain, Palestine 75 11385 From “Little Hermon”, N. W. across Esdraelon Plain to Nazareth, among the hills, Palestine 76 3148 Village of Nain, and Mount Tabor, looking N. E., Palestine 76a 3149 Looking S. from Mount Tabor to the Hill of Moreh, Palestine 76b 10859 Lower Galilee, N. E. from Mount Tabor, past Homs 223 227 228 229 230 of Hattin to Upper Galilee 233 Nazareth 77 11363 Beautiful Nazareth; outlook S. from hills above town to historic Esdraelon, Palestine 234 77a 3150 Nazareth, the home of the Child Jesus — from the N. E 236 78 3151 Ancient “Fountain of the Virgin”, where Mary came for water, Nazareth 237 78a 3152 Greek Church, on supposed site of the synagogue where Christ taught, Nazareth 238 78b 336i Carpenter shop at Nazareth 239 79 3377 A threshing floor in the hills of Galilee — the women winnowing 241 CONTENTS XI Cana 80 3159 Cana of Galilee and its well — from the S. — Palestine . 81 3196 Sea of Galilee In the court of a village home — Cana of Galilee, Palestine 82 3160 Looking N. E. from the Mount of Beatitudes to Sea of Galilee 83 11383 The storied Sea of Galilee and its wall of hills; N. over Tiberias, on its W, bank 84 3162 Tiberias, a town of Jewish fishermen, Sea of Galilee, Palestine 85 3163 Life on the shore of Galilee, at Tiberias 85a 3367 Inside the court of an Oriental inn, Tiberias 86 3164 Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, and distant hills of the Gadarenes 87 10884 Plain of Gennesaret and Sea of Galilee, N. from above Magdala to Upper Galilee 88 1097 1 Tabighah spring and Gennesaret plain; view S. W. to Horns of Hattin 89 3166 Traditional Capernaum, Christ’s home by the Sea of Galilee 89a 10972 Shattered remnants of old Chorazin; view S. over Sea of Galilee 90 10974 Fishermen mending nets at Jordan’s entrance into Sea of Galilee— (view S.) 90a 10843 Followers of Peter’s old trade emptying nets on shore of Galilee— (S. W.) 90b 3215 Looking S. E. along the eastern shore of Galilee, where the draught of fishes was taken 91 10846 W. over Sea of Galilee, from above Kersa (Gergesa) to Horns of Hattin 92 10882 Plain of the upper Jordan, N. from near Lake Huleh to Mount Hermon 92a 3167 The Jordan’s main source — one of the world’s largest springs — at Dan 92b 11382 Roman bridge over Hasbany River, on the Jerusalem- to- Damascus highway Caesarea Philippi 93 1088 1 Down the upper Jordan valley, S. W. from Caesarea Philippi on Mount Hermon 93a 10849 Work and play beside leafy booths; Caesarea Philippi, foot of Mount Hermon 93b 3169 Old Gate to Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon 94 10878 In beautiful Lebanon, E. over upper Jordan valley to Mount Hermon 94a 10879 The snow-clad summit of Mount Hermon (9166 feet) ; grandest height in Palestine 27] Xii CONTENTS Tyre page 95 3171 Ruins of ancient Tyre, wonderful fulfilment of prophecy (Ezekiel xxvi-xxvii) 273 95a 10812 A poor woman of Zarephath gathering firewood, Palestine 275 Sidon 96 3172 Ancient citadel in the sea, at Sidon, Syria 276 Mount Lebanon 96a 11381 Beyrout, the prosperous Christian seaport, N. E. from harbor toward Lebanon Mountains 277 9 7 1 1628 The oldest of the sacred cedars of Lebanon — monarch of the 400 278 97a 11468 Cedars of Lebanon — once mighty groves that sup- plied wood for Solomon’s Temple 279 Baalbek 97b 109 13 Baalbek and plain between the Lebanons; view N. from town, Syria 281 98 3174 The mightiest building stone ever cut, ruins of Baalbek, Syria 282 98a 3I7S Colossal remnants of the Sun Temple, grandest of antiquity, Baalbek, Syria 283 Damascus 99 3176 Damascus and its gardens — from the N. W. — Syria.. 28s 99a 3177 The covered street called “Straight” from the east, Damascus, Syria 287 99b 11380 Buildings and traffic to-day on the street called * * Straight ”, in Damascus 289 99c 10894 Abana River, the sweet waters of Damascus, Syria. . 290 100 11378 An Oriental room on two levels, where honored guests “go up higher”, Damascus 291 100a 3178 The inner court of a Damascus home, Syria 292 APPENDIX A. Outline of Bible History 29 5 B. The Land of Palestine 305 MAPS (All bound in booklet inserted in the back cover.) 1. Jaffa. 2. Environments of Jerusalem. 3. Modern Jerusalem. 4. Jerusalem, Mount of Olives and Bethany. 5. Bethlehem. 6. Jericho and surroundings. 7. The Vale of Shechem. 8. Samaria. 9. Section of Galilee. 10. Nazareth. 11. General map of Palestine. INTRODUCTION Our purpose in this book is to serve as personal guides to two hundred places in Palestine that will be seen through the stereoscope. Consequently there are several facts which should be definitely recognized by those who would make use of the following pages. The first is, that a stereoscopic photograph, when seen through the stereoscope, furnishes a representation of a place or object fundamentally different from that furnished by any other kind of illustration. An ordinary, single photograph gives a representation on a small, flat surface, that is, in two dimensions — breadth and height, with merely a suggestion of the third dimen- sion, depth. But the stereograph consists of two single photographs, taken from two points of view, between two and three inches apart, the normal distance between our eyes. When seen in the stereo- scope these two flat surface photographs are re- united as in the natural vision, and become to the eyes a space — a space of three dimensions, breadth, height and depth. And when the focal length of the camera and that of the stereoscope correspond, as they practically do in this series, the stereograph becomes not only an actual space to the eyes, but a life-size space, the object or landscape being shown in natural perspective, natural size and at natural distance. That is, the two small, flat prints, 3x3 inches in size, about six inches in front of the eyes, xiii XIV INTRODUCTION serve as two windows through which we look, and beyond which we see the representation of the ob- ject or place, standing out as large as the original object or place would appear to the eyes of one look- ing from the place where the camera stood. Remarkable as these statements may seem when thoughtfully considered, still they are absolutely true — based on scientific facts, which may be found explained in any reliable treatise on binocular vision. And, being true, it is easily seen that it is of real importance, first of all, that we recognize clearly and finally the largeness, the great size, of these representations with which we have to do. We are not to look on small, Hat photographic prints, but through them, and our eyes are to roam over life- size representations of two hundred definite sections of Palestine. Two hundred life-size models of stone and dirt of these same parts of Palestine, so rich in historical memories, could not be more definite and solid to the eyes — moreover, they would be vastly less accurate and not at all serviceable for use. We must grasp and hold fast to this fact as to the size of these representations when seen in the stereo- scope, and as a necessary help to this, their location entirely separate from and back of the stereoscopic card, if we are to be in a position to begin to judge of their usefulness. The second important fact is that these two hun- dred stereographs become not only life-size repre- sentations, capable of giving impressions to the mind as such, but they are capable of being more than mere representations in their power to teach and influence us. We mean that, when properly looked at, they always affect us in some measure as INTRODUCTION XV would the very realities which they represent. And, indeed, it is undoubtedly true that they may be, for an appreciable length of time, when used under the best conditions, all that the realities themselves would be, in their power to affect and inspire us. This could not be possible except for several reasons. These representations are infinitely accur- ate in detail and proportion, and are therefore mar- velously realistic. Then — and it is an absolutely indispensable condition — they are not looked at in the hand, but with the eyes within the hood of the stereoscope, our immediate surroundings being en- tirely shut out. Consequently, the most perfect con- ditions are furnished for concentrating and holding the attention, and so enabling us to gain a distinct consciousness or experience of location in two hun- dred places in Palestine. Whether all would be ready to admit, at first, or not, that the stereoscopic representation ever becomes everything that the reality could be, still all who carefully look into the question will agree that it can become, in a large measure, what the original scene would be to us. Thus, we have to do not only with life-size repre- sentations, but with what are, to a large degree, the actual parts of Palestine itself in their power to teach and affect us. It is the recognition of these two great facts that has determined the nature of this book. If stereo- graphs are life-size spaces of three dimensions to the eyes, they should be recognized as such and used as such. And if they may be to a greater or loss degree, according as we use them, the realities to us, then they should be treated so as to make them realities as far as possible. And it seems the XVI INTRODUCTION more we treat them as places, as Palestine itself, the more they become the same to us. Accordingly, in the following pages are given such maps and in- formation as will make this small volume serve the purpose of a guide-book, and at the same time, as we said at the beginning, we have tried to serve in it as personal guides, saying everything in such a way as to constantly help and lead us to make this tour, to visit these places in the stereoscope, as a tourist visits the actual scenes in Palestine. It will be found that on this stereoscopic tour one is carried to all the more important places in Palestine, and in the same order that a tourist might visit them. In the more important sections the stereographed scenes are so connected that we may move from one position to another in such a way as to really make it a continuous journey. We urge upon all who have not actually visited Palestine, to give the closest attention to the maps and the descriptions, with the purpose of always keeping their bearings as they move from one place to another. Finally, we have space for only a word on the importance of the land of Palestine, — why we need to know it intimately, why we should stand in the very presence of its hills and valleys : The land of Palestine has been called the “Fifth Gospel.” A visit to it, under the best conditions, has been placed in educational value beyond that of a post-graduate course of study. In what way, then, can the knowing of this land help us so much? Briefly, we may say, in helping to make the Bible real to us. And 'this is precisely the greatest diffi- culty we meet when trying to read the Bible intelli- gently. We must remember — it cannot be too often INTRODUCTION XVII emphasized — that the Bible is a history; that in the Bible God reveals His plan of saving men — not in a theological system, but in this history of His deal- ings with His chosen people. And as history takes place on the earth, not in the air, the foundations of the Bible are laid not only in human history, but also in geography. If the history of the children of Israel be merely mythological and a product of the imagination, — if the land is not a reality, if the Jor- dan and the Mountains of Judea do not exist — then the prophecy, the doctrine, “the exceeding great and precious promises/’ all fail us. Clearly, then, if we are to understand the truths of salvation as revealed in Scripture, we must study Bible History. But thousands of years have passed since the records were made, and the lands in which the events recorded are said to have occurred are thousands of miles away. The conditions of life then were very different from ours to-day. Conse- quently we find it very difficult to think ourselves into those far-away lands, back to those distant times, to make that history real to us — real as the deeds of men about us to-day. Now, what can be the greatest help to us in overcoming this greatest difficulty? What is the most rational course to pur- sue? First of all, we must see that the land is real. And most of us will find that the actual places in Palestine have, been preached about and sung about — Jordan as the “River of Death Zion as a “Spir- itual Kingdom” — until they, more than most distant localities, have assumed a mythical character in our minds. Surely, as long as the places that do exist to-day are unreal to us, it will be extremely hard to have the history which occurred in those places XV111 INTRODUCTION centuries ago and the people who lived in them be- come concrete realities to us. Hence we first need to know intimately — to see, if possible — the very stone and earth of which those places are composed. Such experiences help us as nothing else can ; they are magical in their power to give us a vivid realiza- tion of actuality in the Bible narrative. Heretofore it has been possible only for the few, by an actual visit, to have the land made thus real to them. In- deed, the study of Palestine geography by means of maps and descriptions, as well as Bible history, has been left far too much to the pastor’s study and advanced classes. This should not be the case, for the truest devotional reading of the Bible can be done only when one is deeply convinced of the his- torical worth of the narrative or teaching. Now, for the first time, all may go far beyond such study of Palestine as has been possible with ordinary maps and ordinary pictures and written descriptions. Now, if in connection with the specially devised maps in this book, we give ourselves up to the study of these parts of the land, through the stereoscope, then, in a true sense, we may have experiences of standing in the very presence of Palestine. This “Fifth Gospel” has, in the past, been practically closed to the vast majority of believers. Now, in a real sense, it is possible for all to know what it means to stand in all the more important places throughout the land. Jesse L. Hurlbut Charles F. Kent ITINERARY INSTRUCTIONS 1. Maps. Find each successive position on some one of the maps as noted. A brief description of the geography of Palestine is given on pages 305 to 31 1, and will be found a help to the understanding of the land. But constant reference should be made to the maps; first, to the general map at the end of this book, and then to the detail maps of special sections when given. Even those who are very familiar with the country will need to consult these maps to de- termine the position from which they are looking in each instance, as well as the direction in which they are looking and the exact territory covered. Great care has been taken to have the maps accurate. The system for locating the successive positions, given in connection with the maps, has been specially de- vised for this purpose and patented. Note that the general map of Palestine, often referred to from the beginning, is numbered 11 and inserted last; this is in order that it may conven- iently be kept unfolded during the reading of the book, ready for comparison with any one of the other sectional maps, as may be desired. 2. Position Numbers. The positions which we are to take, one after the other, are numbered 1 to 100. The stereographs to be used bear numbers cor- responding with the numbers of sections in this guide-book. xx INSTRUCTIONS XXI In addition to one hundred places chosen as of first importance, we may enlarge the range of our journey by visiting another hundred places. The guide-book notes on positions in that Supplement- ary Series of visits will be found printed in slightly smaller type, in order to distinguish them from the notes on the principal visits. The Supplementary Positions are themselves marked with letters — a, b, c, etc. — appended to the number of whatever Regu- lar Position may directly precede them. Thus our first Supplementary Position (House of Simon the Tanner at Jaffa) is to be taken after Regular Posi- tion 2 ; the House of Simon is therefore numbered 2a. The third Regular Position is followed by two Supplementary Positions ; these latter are marked 3a, 3b. Supplementary Position 10a (Gihon cat- tle market), if used, is most intelligible and interest- ing if taken directly after 10 of the Regular Series. The same system is followed throughout the tour. 3. Stereoscope. Move the slide or carrier, which holds the stereograph, to the point on the shaft of the stereoscope where its details can be seen most distinctly. 4. Light. See that the best light available falls on the face of the stereograph. Hold the stereoscope firmly against the forehead, excluding all surround- ing light from the eyes. 5. Time. Do not take the successive positions too rapidly — this is the greatest mistake people make. Each outlook should be studied and pondered. Usually illustrations and photographs serve merely as an embellishment or supplement to the text — that is, the reading matter of a book or article. But in XXII INSTRUCTIONS this case that order is reversed. What we see forms the real text, and all that is said in this book is in- tended as a supplement to what is seen — as a help to its understanding. Dr. Holmes well said, “It is a mistake to suppose that one knows a stereoscopic picture after he has studied it a hundred times. . . . There is such a frightful amount of detail that we have the same sense of infinite complexity which nature gives us.” By taking time to note some of these numberless details, we are helped as in no other way to feel that we are in Palestine — which should be our constant purpose. These “parts” of Palestine have a thousand things to tell us if we give them a chance. 6. History. Keep clearly in mind the general course of Bible history. This is particularly im- portant because we are to follow the same route in going through Palestine that a tourist might take and shall not therefore be able to call up Bible events in the order in which they transpired. For those not very familiar with the order of these events, there is given toward the end of this book a brief but comprehensive historical outline. By running this over now and then, we can easily keep before us a bird’s-eye view of the whole course of Bible history, and thus be able to refer almost in- stantly the events called up at each place we visit to their proper period in the chronological outline. TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Have you dreamed of visiting Palestine? Have you longed to know what it would mean to stand by the wall of Jerusalem? in Nazareth? by the Jor- dan? You may now know, by the right use of the stereographs, specially devised maps and this book, what it is to stand in those very places. At first you may be inclined to ridicule this state- ment, or to pass it by lightly. Many people would be likely to say, ‘‘Oh, yes, I would give a good deal to visit Bethlehem, to stand in a street in Jerusalem or by the shore of Galilee, but no experience I can get with this stereoscope and these small photo- graphs can be compared with the experiences of actually being in those places. There is an infinite difference between pieces of pasteboard and paper and Palestine itself ; and therefore there must be an infinite difference between my experiences of seeing the photograph and the place. To give me what may be called in any true sense an experience of seeing Palestine you must either bring Palestine to me or take me to Palestine.” The logic by which this conclusion is reached seems at first to be conclusive, but it is precisely here that the student of the mind differs with the casual observer. “You make,” he says, “too much xxiii XXIV TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND of the land, the material Palestine, being present or absent.” If you go as a traveller to Palestine you do not go to get the material land, the hills, cities, peo- ple ; you do not bring them away with you on your return. Nevertheless you feel you obtain what you went after. What is it, then? Evidently your ex- periences of being in the presence of the land. That is, wherever we are, we have to do with what may be called two kinds of realities, one objective, the material world about us, earth, buildings, people — and the other subjective, the states of our conscious selves — thoughts, emotions, desires. And it is these mental states, this subjective reality, that we really seek in travelling. The places, buildings, people are only means of giving us these experiences. So now, coming back to the stereoscope, it is easy to see that in holding to the fact that the land, the real Pales- tine, is not present, we are only recognizing that one of the two kinds of reality, the objective, is absent. But we do have the subjective reality. There is indeed an infinite difference between the picture and the place itself as objective realities, but there need be no essential difference between the ideas and emotions which the picture and the place can pro- duce within us. We are dealing with realities in the stereoscope, but they are real experiences of seeing Palestine, not the material earth and water and air of Palestine. Many authorities might be quoted to make us more alive to the possibilities here opened to us, but we will give only one, an apt statement by Pro- fessor Lough, of New York University: “The essential thing for us is not that we have the actual physical place or object before us, as a TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND XXV tourist does, rather than a picture, but that we have some, at least, of the same facts of consciousness, ideas and emotions, in the presence of the picture, that the tourist gains in the presence of the scene. This is entirely possible in the stereoscope.” Of course, the experiences made possible by the stereoscope have many limitations, as compared with actual travel. We cannot get in the stereo- scope the traveller’s experiences of movement ; neither can we get color; the sense of location in the place represented may be limited in duration, often lasting with some people only a few seconds at a time ; and further there may be a difference in the intensity of the feeling, though not a difference in the kind of feeling. It is found, however, that none of these limitations affect the reality or gen- uineness of one’s experiences in connection with the stereoscope. In other words, the experiences made possible by the right use of the stereographs with the special maps and this book are comparable to the experiences we would gain by being carried un- consciously to Palestine and being permitted to look out over one hundred of the most important places there. Who would not consider this a great priv- ilege? The results of such experiences will be lifelong. We shall have a deeper interest in all we ever see or hear about the people who have lived in these places or the events that occurred in them. “The Bible reads like a new book to me,” so says one who has made such a journey. No one claims, however, that these experiences can be obtained in their largest possibility unless the most careful use is made of the special maps as XXVI TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND well as the suggestions in this book in connection with the places seen. We certainly cannot expect to gain a definite consciousness or experience of location in any place, unless we know where the place is and what are its surroundings. PART I. A TRIP TO JERUSALEM [Regular tour, 1-30, including 30 positions. Sup plementary tour, 2a-2ga, including 31 positions.] Let us turn, first of all, to our general map of Palestine (Map 11), at the end of the book, and spread it out before us. We look down on the whole land, from Tyre and Sidon and Damascus on the north, to the Dead Sea on the south. It is hardly more than one hundred and twenty-five miles from Damascus to the Dead Sea ; a little more than sixty miles from Galilee and the Sea of Gali- lee to Judea and the Dead Sea. The numbers in red, with diverging red lines, show some of the positions we are to take on our journey through the land. The rectangles in red indicate sections given on special maps, where other positions are indicated. We are to enter the land at Jaffa, the ancient sea- port. Observe its position on the coast, well down at the south, yet fifteen miles or more farther north than Jerusalem and the north end of the Dead Sea. At Jaffa note the number 1 in red, and the two red lines which start from the sea and branch toward the shore. They mean that for our first position in Palestine we are to stand on a ship which lies before Jaffa and that we shall look east to the ancient town on the shore. Map 1 shows our position in its rela- tion to the buildings of the ancient town. Position 1. Jaffa, the Joppa of Bible Times Here we are before Jaffa, the Joppa of the Bible! What a compact, solid-looking town it is ! Those 1 Positiou 1. Mnp 1. 2 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND houses, rising in regular rows, like terraces, stand close together, with scarcely any space for streets between them. The building directly in front of us, and near the water, looking like a fort, with its row of port-holes, is the Turkish Custom House, where our luggage must be examined. That tower near the top of the hill belongs to a monastery. Rather small quarters in that mass of buildings before us for a population of 23,000 people, half of them Mohammedans, a quarter Christians — so-called — and a quarter Jews. See that little boat dancing on the waves! It is the boat of the Customs officer, and it will soon be followed by a swarm of similar cockle-shell craft to take us and our belongings ashore. You know that there is no real “port” here at Jaffa, though they call it the seaport of Palestine. Let us turn to the general map of Palestine (at the end of the book) and note the straight shore line at Jaffa. Because of the lack of a sheltered haven, all ships have, like ours, to lie at anchor in the open sea ; the passengers must be rowed ashore, through that white line of breakers which you see yonder, under which runs a very wicked reef. It would be an immense advantage to the business interests of Jaffa and, indeed, of all Palestine, if the port could be made more convenient for handling passengers and freight, but the idea does not appeal to the gov- ernment. While we are waiting for our boat, let us try to realize where we are, and what lies before us in our journey. Around us roll the waves of the Mediter- ranean Sea : back of us they stretch away until they break on the shores of Greece, Italy, Spain, and sweep through the Straits of Gibraltar, two thou- Ponitlon 1. Map 1. JAFFA 3 sand miles to the west of us, into the Atlantic Ocean. Just before us they touch the shores of Palestine. At last we are to visit places of which we have thought and dreamed since childhood. Al- most at our feet is the soil of the Holy Land. Joppa itself has no small interest to the reader of the Bible, with its memories of Solomon , 1 and Jonah , 2 and Dorcas , 3 and Peter . 4 And beyond that hill stand Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, and Nazareth. It quick- ens our breath and gives us a thrill to think that we are to stand in the very places where, centuries ago, history was made that has transformed the world. But let us recognize the fact that we shall not ob- tain anything like the full value of this pilgrimage unless we have in the very beginning and through- out a definite, intelligent idea of what we are seek- ing in it. We are not to regard ours as an ordinary tour merely for pleasure. We shall not find in Pal- estine natural scenery of great beauty and splendor, nor magnificent architecture, nor treasures of art. What, then, shall we find in this journey? We shall make a dead Past live again. Historical events that have been to us mere statements will henceforth be realities, when we have seen the hills where they really took place ; men that have been names and nothing more will become heroes, living again, when we have looked upon the paths that they have trod. Our constant endeavor, then, must be to go back in imagination from the ignoble present of this land into its mighty past ; to associate with each place that we shall see its men and its events. If we can only “make past deeds live again where they were 1 II Chron. ii:i6. 8 Acts ix:36. 2 Jonah i:3. 4 Acts ix:38-43. Position 1. Map 1. 4 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND wrought,” then these places which we are to visit will be entrancingly interesting; we shall wish to stand in them not for a few minutes, but for hours ; we shall not be satisfied with a single glance, nor even with a single study; we shall be content only when we have returned to them again and again. But to do this, to make the noble Past alive and real, we must first of all recognize the fact that to nearly everybody, even to Bible readers, the events which have given their interest to this land are very unreal and shadowy. We believe the history of the Bible, we accept it as true, but too often it passes for a story, almost a myth, as far as its effect upon us is concerned. We have heard Bible people dis- cussed until they have faded away into abstract characters; Bible places have been spiritualized into allegorical unrealities. Let it be our effort on this journey to arouse our historical imagination. We must people those streets with the busy life of two thousand years ago, which was as real as that of yesterday. We must make the heroes of the hills of Palestine live again, by an effort of our thought. We must get out of the Present into the Past, and bring the Past into the living Present, if we are to obtain the largest reward for our journey in this land. So, let us begin right here at Joppa to awaken the memories that slumber in this old town. Do you know that three thousand years ago a great raft of timbers lay moored in front of this very reef, rising and falling and bumping together in the breakers? Those were cedar trees, cut on Mount Lebanon, and floated down the coast for the building of Solomon’s Temple. It is quite possible that Solomon himself Position 1. Map 1. JAFFA 5 stood on yonder rocky shore to see his cedars safely landed. In that rift between the breakers once, about eight hundred years before Christ came, a ship sailed out, we are told, bearing the prophet Jonah, whose face ought to have been toward the east and not the west. But you are impatient to go on shore, and we will trust ourselves to the care of those boatmen. We must climb down the steamer’s side and ride through the breakers to that rocky landing-place, which opens to us the land of lands. A street leading up toward the left from near the Custom House takes us to our second standpoint as marked on the Jaffa map. Position 2. The Bazaar of Jaffa on a Market Day All the year round there is a daily market in this open space, though the greatest variety of wares appears in summer and autumn. Even in winter there is no snow on this part of the coast. These peasant farmers have come here from scattered hamlets in the Plain of Sharon, some arriving at sunrise. A strange, shifting scene is this Oriental crowd gathered in the public square! Look at the loose robes, and the baggy trousers, and the white turbans! If the few people in a semi-European dress — combining Paris with Bagdad fashions — were out of the way, we could easily imagine that we have been transported back a couple of thousand years, and that we are looking on a Joppa throng as the Apostle Peter saw it. The camel stalks about, ragged and awkward, yet in all the dignity of an- cient rank. A cheap camel could be bought here PoNitioiiM 1, 2. Map 1. 6 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND for perhaps fifteen dollars. His humble work-fel- low, the donkey, is worth from four to six dollars. Those white or variegated robes girdled at the waist are the indoor garments of all Orientals. That brown mantle with wide stripes, worn by so many, is the abba, the universal overcoat of the East. Without doubt the patriarch Abraham wore one much like it, and it was such a cloak that Paul left at Troas with his friend Carpus . 1 Do you notice that little shed, in the middle of the throng? That is the office where every dealer pays his octroi, or city tax, upon all merchandise, a requirement uni- versal throughout the Mediterranean world. The very slight knowledge of arithmetic which these men possess was learned probably in the govern- ment schools, where a few cents were paid weekly for lessons in reading, writing and elementary arith- metic. The village sheiks, who teach the reading of the Koran, seldom pay any attention to mathe- matics. You see in this crowd but few women, and those of the peasant class. They sell fruits and vegetables. Some of these home-made baskets con- tain potatoes, beans, peas, figs, and plums. Six pounds of tomatoes can be bought for a cent. One hundred oranges sell for five cents in Turkish money, and Jaffa oranges are the best in the world, juicy, sweet, and as solid as a beefsteak. You ob- serve a general air of dilapidation in the buildings and awnings around the square. This is character- istic of the Orient to-day; whether it has always been so may be uncertain. If you would see neat, trim buildings, and a regard for appearances, you must look to the West, not to the East. Judging 1 II Timothy iv:i 3 - Position 2. Map 1. JAFFA 7 from the shabby beam at our feet, the building we are on would be called ancient in any western land. If you wanted to rent a house here you would have to pay about thirty dollars a year for a three- room home, or one hundred dollars for a house of six rooms. Food for a family of four (if living ac- cording to local standards of prosperous people) would cost about one dollar weekly. We are in a Bible landscape, among people clad in Biblical garments. Let us try to see, also, one of the crowds which surely gathered here in Bible times, trading and discussing the events of those far-off days. Is one of those turbaned men telling his friends that Dorcas, the good woman who made so many garments for the poor widows, has just died, in a house around the corner? Is another waiting for Simon Peter to pass through the market place, coming from Lydda? You remember that when Dorcas died, they laid out her body in an upper chamber, and sent for Peter. He came, prayed over her, and she rose to life once more. For Position 3 f main tour, see pa|?e 0. * If we have looked long enough at the market place, let us leave it, and walk to the tanners’ quarter of the city by the seaside. There we shall find a house where the Apostle Peter is said to have spent many days in Joppa. See Map i for exact location. Position 2a. The House of Simon the Tanner Am I sure that this is the identical house where Peter received that wonderful vision which transformed the church, and opened the Gospel to the world ? 1 Well, it must be admitted that there are few, if any, buildings now standing in Palestine which were here two thousand years ago. Yet there are strong reasons for believing * For Supplementary Tour only. 1 Acts x 19-20, 34-48. Position;* 2, 2a. Map 1. 8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND that this stands on or at least very near the original site; it is near the seashore; it is outside the ancient limit of the city, as a tanner’s house would be, for his trade made him ceremonially “unclean,” and there are tokens of an old tannery close at hand. We are quite certain also that the house was not unlike this one, for in this changeless East they build houses just as they did twenty or even thirty centuries ago. It fronts on a court, not on the street, and the windows are without glass, but there is never any severely cold weather here to call for special safeguards. Up such steps as these, outside the house, not inside, as we build our stairs, Simon Peter must have often walked, and on that platform above he may have lain down to sleep, when the vision of the “great sheet” was let down from heaven before his eyes. All of us have an interest in that vision, for it changed Peter in one hour from a narrow Jew to a Christian statesman, embracing the whole world in his plans. But for that vision, we should not be here to-day, for that voice from heaven opened to us Gentiles the doors of the Christian Church. Well may we look with reverent interest upon the spot where that revelation came. The man at the left is a public water seller — the con- tents of that big goatskin bottle will cost some house- wife a cent when poured into her jars at home. These women, while industrious and kindly, are quite unedu- cated; unless some mission school has taught them, they do not know how to read or write. The native sheiks’ schools are for boys only. The sandals worn by the girl at the right are cheap articles with wooden soles and leather thongs, costing two or three cents a pair. More prosperous women wear conventional shoes of European manufacture. That tree with ragged branches is a fig- tree, just such a tree as our Saviour passed on the Mount of Olives once, when he looked for fruit, and found only leaves . 1 We should expect to find this house a sacred place to all Christians, but it is none the less so to Mohammedans, who have adopted as their own all the saints and proph- ets of the Bible. Every day worshippers may be seen prostrating themselves on the roof of the tanner’s house, and uttering the creed of Islam, with its mingled truth and falsehood: “There is no God but God, and Mo- hammed is his prophet.” 1 Mark xi : 12-14. Position 2a. Map 1. JAFFA 9 We will now leave Joppa, and take our stand by the side of one of the roads leading into the city. Position 3. A Caravan of Camels in the Narrow Road Approaching Jaffa Here we have taken our stand by the roadside to allow this straggling line of camels and their leaders to pass ; the road is narrow, and the camels leave but little room for us tourists. Look at that tall beast in front — homely and ungainly, yet with a certain air of nobility. And if antiquity of descent gives a patent of noble rank, that camel deserves it, for the camel has held an honorable place since the earliest ages. Abraham had camels, 1 and so had his sons and grand- sons ; the camel is pictured on ancient monuments in Egypt long before Abraham’s time. Do you notice those callous places on the camel’s front knees? You will find them also on his hind knees, and under his breast, caused by his kneeling position when receiving a load. The driver taps the camel’s neck with a stick, and the beast kneels down with his legs under his body. As each piece of his load is laid on his back he gives a grunt of dissatisfaction at its weight, although on a level road like this he can carry six hundred pounds. When the burden is complete the driver gives his halter a jerk, with a word sounding like Khikh, and then the camel rises, ready for his journey. Look at those wide-spreading feet ! Their under surface is a fibrous mass, giving the camel a noiseless step, and protecting his feet from thorns and sharp stones. He never stumbles on a rough road, but frequently slips on a smooth one. These animals appear to be tied each to the saddle of the one before him ; but you will 1 Gen. xxivno, xxx:43. Position 3. Map 1. IO TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND often see a row of them where each is fastened to the tail of the camel in front of him. This leading camel has skins full of water for his load, not for his own drinking but for the men of the party. Where wells are abundant the camel will drink once or twice in a day, but on the desert he can live a week without water. As we look at this group of people and their beasts of burden we are reminded of many journeys in the changeless East. Abraham, his children and his grand- children travelled in just this manner. So did the prophets in their travels through the land of Israel. You remember that Jesus sent his twelve disciples out, two and two, to preach in Galilee . 1 Undoubtedly they met, and probably at times joined travelling parties looking very much like these. We are standing here in what has been one of the greatest highways of the world. This rolling plain stretching back of us to Jaffa and before us to those distant hills, the Shephelah, has been from time immemorial the main thoroughfare between two continents, Asia and Africa. The old caravan route out of Egypt forks some distance south, one branch running back of us through Jaffa, keeping generally near the coast, while the other and principal branch passes near us. For Position 4, main tour, see page 14. *We are still near Jaffa as the distant houses in European style show; and before we enter upon our journey let us look at a relief map of the land which we are to explore. Position 3a. Relief map of Palestine, by the Palestine Exploration Society If Mount Nebo, where Moses stood when he viewed the 1 Mark vi:y. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 3, 3a. Map. 1. RELIEF MAP II land, were on the south of the country, instead of being east of the northern end of the Dead Sea (29), and if, instead of being 2,640 feet high, it were 12,000 feet high, then “we might climb where Moses stood, and view the landscape o’er.” We are looking at the land directly from the south, while Moses saw it from the west. That smooth plane on the northwest is the Mediterranean Sea; its Hebrew name was “the great western sea,” or “the great sea toward the going down of the sun.” Parallel to this sea the land extends in five natural di- visions. The first is the coast plain. In the far north moun- tains seem to rise directly out of the Mediterranean, but just north of Mount Carmel (No. 16) there is a level place which broadens into the great triangular plain of Esdraelon, or Armageddon, the scene of more battles — from the ancient Pharaohs to the wars of Napoleon — than any other spot on the earth’s surface. The Carmel range again comes di- rectly to the sea; but south of it the coast plain spreads out, widening as it extends southward. That plain is ex- ceedingly fertile; in all ages it has been carefully culti- vated; but it was never the home of the Israelites and was only occasionally held by conquest. On the south dwelt the Philistines, near Mount Carmel the Canaanites, and in the north the Phoenicians. Its cities on this map are (7) Joppa, (21) Tyre, (22) Sidon. The second natural division is the Shephelah or foothills, less noticeable in the north than in the south, where we ob- serve irregular groups of little hills. These are from 300 to 500 feet high, adapted for grazing rather than tillage; hence claimed by both Philistines and Israelites, and the scene of many conflicts in their early history. The third section is the Mountain Region, a land of rocky heights and narrow ravines. Here the mountains are from 2,500 to 2,800 feet high; to-day they stand barren, rocky, and forbidding. One can scarcely believe that several millions of Israelites could live and find support on those desolate heights and in the valleys between them. But there are ruins which show that once every mountain was inhabited. Under the Kings of Israel, and under the wise rule of the Romans, all those mountain sides were terraced, and covered with luxuri- ant vegetation. Beginning with (1) Hebron, we pass (2) Bethlehem, (3) Jerusalem, (4) Mizpah, (5) Bethel, (8) the twin-mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, embracing the city of Shechem, (9) Samaria, (10) Dothan, the scene of Joseph’s enslavement, (15) Nazareth and (18) the Mount of the Beatitudes, a few among the many scenes of Bible story. Position 3a. 12 TRAVELLING IN TIIE HOLY LAND The fourth division is the Jordan Valley, the deepest gorge in the earth’s crust. At our feet lies the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean level, and beyond it we trace the line of the river Jordan, the pear-shaped Sea of Galilee, and in the north little Lake Merom. Not many cities are in this valley, but among them we note (6) Jericho, (13) Bethshan, (17, 19, 20) Tiberias, Caper- naum, and Bethsaida, around the Sea of Galilee, and (23) Dan, near one of the sources of the Jordan. The Eastern Table Land, that zone lying beyond the river Jordan, forms the last of the parallel sections. Look closely and you will perceive that the peaks are fewer, and the mountains less pointed. It is a high plain, pene- trated by valleys running eastward toward the desert. The southern region is Mount Seir, the home of the Edomites, Esau’s descendants. East of the Dead Sea is Moab, a land of mountains and deep, cavernous ravines. North of Moab is Gilead, a word meaning “Highland.” At 28 is the mouth of the brook Jabbok, beside which stream, but further up among the mountains, Jacob had his midnight wrestle. 1 The region east of the Sea of Gali- lee and the upper Jordan was called, in the Old Testa- ment, Bashan, or “Woodland.” Far in the north towers Mount Hermon, the loftiest elevation in the land, 10,000 feet high. Three streams can be discerned in this region — the Yarmuk (or ancient Hieromax) just south of the Sea of Galilee; the Jabbok, or Zerka, north of the Dead Sea, and the Arnon, about the latitude of the middle of the Dead Sea; all run from east to west. There remains one more section of the land, not paral- lel, like the others, but south of the sea-coast plain and the mountain region; we note the difference in its ap- pearance from the mountains north of it. This is the Negeb, called in the old version of the Bible, “the South Country.” It begins a little south of Hebron (1) and extends down to the Sinaitic desert. It is a mountainous, waterless region, not adapted to cultivation except where mountain streams were once employed in irrigating the land; always thinly inhabited; and by its condition form- ing a barrier to invasion from the south. By frequently referring to this relief map we shall be able to supplement the nearer views by larger outlooks, and thus to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the entire land. 1 Genesis xxxii:22. Position 3a. PLAIN OF SHARON 13 We cannot tarry longer in Jaffa, for the whole land lies before us. In days of old they wended their way up to Mount Zion pilgrimwise, with scrip and staff; or, as cru- sading knights on horseback, in blazing armor. In our day it has become possible to ride up to Jerusalem by railway train making in two hours the journey which once required two days. But we shall travel by a more interesting historic route. Let us consult the map of Pal- estine (Map 11), at the end of this book, and note the route we are to take. Look at the section of the sea- coast plain: south lies Philistia, and north is Mt. Carmel, while just before us is the Plain of Sharon. * We will pause first at a spot a few miles out from Jaffa, marked 3b on our map, and look eastward over the space between those spreading green lines, that is, in the direc- tion of the foothills. Position 3b. “Roses of Sharon,” on the Plain of Sharon Notice how the ground rises in the distance: that is the Shephelah, the foothills of the mountains which will soon loom up before us, and through which the road winds on its way to Jerusalem. This rise of ground on which we are standing and the one beyond the slight de- pression before us are the land rolls which characterize this Plain of Sharon. These scattered trees are olives, evidently neglected. Government taxes hereabouts are so high that in many places it hardly pays to cultivate the soil, so small a return comes to the farmer, but these trees will keep on bearing more or less fruit as long as there is any life in their old trunks. Orchards of such trees can be seen farther away. Most of this plain is very rich, and gives abundant crops; but just here a spot has become one mass of flowers. Children gather flowers like these and offer bunches of them at the railway stations to pas- sengers on the trains going from Jaffa up to Jerusalem. (Lydda is the station nearest here.) Whoever visits Pal- estine in the spring sees everywhere in the valleys, on the plains, and wherever there is any soil, illimitable land- scapes of wild flowers, brilliant in hue, and of almost every color. Can you recall what Solomon sang, 1 and what a greater than Solomon said* about the flowers of this land? * For Supplementary Tour only. 1 Matt. vi:28, 29. 1 Song of Solomon ii:x. Position 3b. Map 11. 14 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Lydda is one of the towns along the famous in- land caravan route out of Egypt, about an hour’s drive from Jaffa. We shall go there now. Notice its location on our general map of Palestine (Map n), where the number 4 marks our next position just outside the village of Lydda, ancient Lod, about eleven miles southeast of Jaffa on the direct road to Jerusalem. We are to face north, overlook- ing the space between those spreading lines. Position 4. Plowing in the Fertile Plain of Sharon — Lydda We find that the plain is not absolutely level, but rolling a little, like a western prairie in our own land, and that the village in the distance stands on higher ground than the fields close by. While we are still on the coastal plain, we are gradually ap- proaching the foothills of the Shephelah. This is the Plain of Sharon. The word “Sharon” in Hebrew means “plain,” and it is applied both in the Scrip- ture and in the ancient inscriptions to various other plains ; but Sharon was the especial name of the triangular plain between the Mediterranean, Mount Carmel and the hills of the Shephelah, north of the Philistine country. This soil is sandy but fertile, and it is carefully cultivated. Do you notice the plows, one drawn by a pair of oxen, the other by a camel? The Oriental plow is merely a stick or branch twisted into a peculiar shape, and pointed with iron. The work of a carpenter in the Orient is largely the making of plows and yokes. Perhaps Jesus in the wood-worker’s shop at Nazareth made plows like these and yokes like that upon the pair of oxen, and then traveled among the villages of Position 4. Map 11. LYDDA 15 Galilee selling them to the farmers. Observe that each plowman guides his plow with one hand, leav- ing his other hand free to hold and apply the goad. The men about whom the Bible tells us, the men who worked on this plain, who lived throughout Palestine in the times of Joshua and David and Christ, are not alive to-day. But their ways of doing things, their customs, are living still. We read in the Bible of goads for use in driving oxen in the field, and we come here and see ox-goads in these men's hands to-day. We hear, in Luke ix:62, Jesus talking about a man putting his hand (not his hands) to the plow, and we see a man here, put- ting not his hands, but his hand, to the plow. We can now realize more vividly such a plowing scene as is described in I Kings, xix: 19, when Elijah threw his cloak upon Elisha. Again and again in modern Palestine we find such examples of the life of those old days as help us greatly in seeing what the Bible writers by means of words try to make us see. Wherever we go in this land to-day we find verification of the Bible narrative. It is important that this is so. The manner of living as recorded in the Bible is so different from that of to-day in most parts of the world that some might thus find reason or excuse to question its accuracy, and therefore many believe that it was according to the Divine purpose that this has been such a “changeless land that so much of the old manner of life, the crude, peculiar customs and ceremonies, have been pre- served that we might see them to-day; in other words, that these are divine object-lessons intended to help us wake more fully to the truth of the Bible records and the reality of Bible events. Position 4. Map 11. i6 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND For Position 5, main tour, see page 20. * Notice on the higher plateau in the distance the mina- ret and roofs of a village, shaded by feathery palms. That is Lydda, the ancient Lod, which we are now to visit. The diverging green lines which reach out from the point 4a on Map 11 show that we are to look westward. Position 4a. Lydda, the Old Testament Lod This is a typical Mohammedan town; and, for such a town, it is busy and prosperous. It was at one time a more thriving place than to-day. That was when most of the trade between Asia and Africa passed by here on the inland caravan route; but, as the Mediterranean has been free from pirates in modern times, more and more of the trade follows the sea route, consequently Lydda has suffered the loss of much of its business. Though so different from our Western ideas of what a town ought to be, still, with the bright sunlight on its curious houses and scattered palm-trees, it has an attractive, quaint, pic- turesque, even a beautiful appearance. A large part of the town, including a fine hospital and mission school, lies farther to the left (south). Careful observation of the de- tails of this place before us is fascinating, but it does not add to our sense of its beauty. Stability is the main characteristic of these structures, and, surely, they must have been built according to the Eastern idea — that houses are to be lived in, not looked at from without. If you care to stay here you can hire one of these houses for less than ten dollars a year. Most of the people own their houses and get their living by cultivating small fields just outside the town. The men eat an early break- fast of cheese, bread and cucumbers, and spend the whole day in the fields, returning at night for their one substan- tial meal of kid or lamb, with rice and other boiled vege- tables. The trees you see among the houses are date palms, and their fruit also helps feed the Lydda house- holders. We wonder whether the man near us is the owner of some of these dwellings. His hands, with finger-ring, and cigarette, do not seem to indicate that he is of the labor- ing class. The few shop-keepers here in town buy at wholesale in Jaffa and sell to their neighbors. * For Supplementary Tour only. I'uNltion 4a. Map 11. LYDDA 17 Like so many of these towns, Lydda has a past out of all proportion to its present in importance. If to be venerable, to have had an existence for thousands of years, entitles a place to respect, then we should look with ven- eration at the place before us. Turn in the Bible to I. Chronicles viii:i2, to Ezra ii:33, and to Nehemiah xi:35. It appears that this town of Lod, as it was then called, was built by Benjaminites before the exile, although be- yond their territorial limits, and again inhabited by them after the exile. What a new interest we have in those few words in those old books of the Bible now! They are no longer mere words — they take us back to living reali- ties, the boys of Elpaal, Eber and Misham and Shamed, planning and working right here, and also to the great home-coming that Ezra speaks of, to this and many other nearby towns. Hearts were happy then, as they would be at home-comings to-day. We can easily believe that more were singing than the two hundred men and women Ezra mentions in ii:65. It would be interesting to know what they were singing. This was the most westerly of the Jewish settlements after the exile, and so it passed through many stormy times as a subject for treaty or war between the Jews and their enemies on the seacoast plain. During the Roman occupation of Palestine this was the center of Jewish feeling. After the destruction of Jerusalem many reli- gious leaders of Judaism sought refuge here and made Lydda something of a city of Rabbinical learning. Dur- ing those times it was known as Diospolis. We are particularly interested in standing here, too, because it was at this place that, according to Acts ix:32- 34, Peter healed Emeas. And here, soon after, two men came from Jaffa to get Peter, that he might go to Jaffa and raise Dorcas to life again. But the chief interest of this place to thousands is its association with St. George, a patron of the Syrian Church, an object of reverence by the Mohammedans, and the patron saint of the great English nation. Some claim that he was buried here; at any rate, after his mar- tyrdom, his ashes were brought here. Off at the left you see a minaret and the church which has commemorated his name for centuries. Destroyed by Saladin, rebuilt by the Crusaders, it has had many varying fortunes. Position 4n. Map 11. i8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND * We follow the main road southward about seven miles, and come to Gezer, where we pause for our next view, at the point marked 4b on Map 11. We will look off southeastward over the ground included between those green lines spread from 4b. Position 4b. Gezer from the northwest — Site of Ca- naanite and Maccabean forts We have walked over hills and valleys seven miles to the south from Lydda, and are now looking at the ancient city of Gezer from the northwest. This patriarchal Arab, who stands before us, might almost represent Abraham, for the records of this city begin in his time, about 2000 B. C., when Gezer was already a stronghold, occupied by Canaanites. How rough are these rocks before us, and how porous! You see how readily they crumble in the changes of the seasons. They break up into a very rich soil; and, if the hillsides could be terraced, as they un- doubtedly were twenty centuries ago, all these slopes would blossom as gardens. Those trees in the distance on the hillside are olives, the most valuable trees in Pales- tine, for they produce abundant fruitage during hundreds of years. Look at those frowning walls that crown the height! They are fitting ramparts for a city which has been a stronghold for nearly forty centuries. As seen on the map, Gezer stands almost in the center of the land of Israel; in reality, during most of the Old Testament history, it was an outpost, marking the border of Israel's possessions. While the Israelites were in Egypt, under the conquering Eighteenth Dynasty, an Egyptian govern- or resided here, holding all southern Palestine under his control. But Egypt lost its prestige, and, when Joshua invaded the land, the ruler here was a native, named Ho- ram, who, according to Joshua x:33 and xii:i2, was de- feated and slain by the Israelites. Nominally the town was included in the lands of the tribe of Ephraim; but its Canaanite inhabitants could not be dislodged; they merely paid tribute to Israel. 1 Not until Solomon’s reign was the city taken, and then by the Egyptians, as Solo- mon’s allies; it was presented as a wedding gift to Solo- mon’s Egyptian queen; from that time it remained a part of the Israelite kingdom. Another chapter of its history opened with the Maccabean revolution, beginning 168 * For Supplementary Tour only. x Josh. xvirio; Jud. i 129. Position 4»>- Mitp 11. GEZER 19 B. C., when Gezer, under the name of Gazara, took a prominent part in the war which made Judea free from its Syrian oppressors. If we were standing a little nearer to those walls, we should see the trenches recently dug under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which have brought to light some striking facts; as, for example, the evidence that, in the early Canaanite period, human sacrifices were offered in that city. * Let us walk over these rugged hills about eight miles in a northeasterly direction, and take our position at Mo- dein, another stronghold on the frontier of Judah. The spot where we are to stand is marked 4c on Map 11. Position 4c. Modein, home of Judas Maccabeus — view southeast toward Jerusalem You see on that hill in the distance a village protected by the rocky heights above it. That is Modein, famous in one of the noblest epochs in Israelite history, although you will not find its name nor the record of its fame, either in the Old Testament or the New. For the story of Modein we must turn to the Apocrypha, those fasci- nating books found in old family Bibles between the Testaments. A little after 200 B. C. the Jews endured the fiercest persecution in all their history — and that means much, for no race on earth has suffered through the ages like this people. The Syrians, under Antiochus Ephi- phanes, undertook forcibly to compel the Jews to re- nounce their religion and to worship idols. An old priest named Mattathias found refuge on yonder hills, then crowned with ramparts, and there kept alive the Jewish faith and freedom. When he died his son, Judas Macca- beus — one of the finest heroes in history, worthy of a place beside Joshua and Gideon and David — kept up the struggle, and won victory after victory, until Jerusalem itself was taken, the Temple reconsecrated (about 166 B. C.) and the liberty of Judah won. In succession four brothers of Judas, all heroes, followed him. Modein was the home of the family. On yonder height they were all buried under a monument which looked toward the Medi- terranean. From that height it is only seventeen miles to Jerusalem, which lies just beyond those shadowy moun- tains in the distance. How differently those stony hills looked in ancient days, * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 4b, 4e. Map 11. 20 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND when they were a succession of terraces, and covered with olive-trees, which may have been the ancestors of the few gnarled trunks before us! We now journey to a spot about ten miles south- east of Lydda — a height illustrious in Hebrew his- tory. Upper Beth-horon is only ten miles from Jerusalem. Map 2 marks with the number 5 the spot where we are to stand, facing north. Position 5. Pass of Upper Beth-horon from the south — Scene of Hebrew victories It is difficult for us to realize, as we look upon this valley and the height beyond it, what mighty and far-reaching events have taken place upon the field of our vision. Those slopes were for hundreds of years, from Joshua to David, the field of warfare between Israel and the older races. Not far away was fought one of the great battles of human history, “the battle of Beth-horon” 1 — great, not in the number of warriors, nor in the extent of empire at stake, but in its far- reaching results to the world. On that day the fate of the world’s religion was at stake. If the Canaan- ites had triumphed, and Joshua had fallen, we can- not see how there could have been in the centuries to come any history of Israel, any psalms of David, or prophecy of Isaiah, any Jesus of Nazareth or Gospel for the world ! If ever in all earthly annals there was one day when the sun and moon might well stand still until the mighty victory was won, that was the day. 2 The Biblical narrative states that the five allied tribes of the Canaanites were routed. 1 Joshua x:i-ii. 2 Joshua x:i2-i4. Positions 4c, 5. Maps 11, 2. UPPER BETH-HORON 21 Their kings were slain. On the map you may trace in imagination the sweep of Joshua’s swift march around southern Palestine, through Ajalon, Libnah, Lachish, and Hebron, to gather up the fruits of his victory . 1 Yet it was, after all, only a partial con- quest. The native races long remained as “thorns in the side” of Israel, to threaten them in war and to corrupt them in peace . 2 David was the first ruler of the Israelite race to hold an undisputed authority over all this land. But this was not the only battle fought and vic- tory won on these hillsides. Along this highway the Philistines marched expecting to crush the re- bellion headed by the young King Saul ; and down this same path they fled, pursued by the victorious Hebrews . 3 At this same point Judas Maccabeus rallied his valiant followers and beat back the Syrian army, driving them in wild fright and confusion out upon the open plain. And a little to the left of our vision, on a lower terrace, he gathered his faint- hearted followers for his last fatal battle with the Syrian foes. For Position 0, main four, nee pace 26. * We now push on, over the desolate, craggy mountains, about seven miles to the southwest, until we reach the village of Amwas near Ajalon, and about twenty miles from Jerusalem. Find on Map n the spot marked 5a — that is where we are next to stand. See what the green lines promise, that we are to look southward across a valley toward the hills. Position 5a. The Village of Amwas (Emmaus) The square opening set around with stones is the mouth of a spring from which the village people get supplies 1 Joshua x: 16-43 3 Judges ii:3. *1 Sam. xiv:22, 23. * For Supplementary Tour only. Position* J»n. Maps 2, 11. 22 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND for drinking, cooking and such little cleaning as they are disposed to do. Travelers who find such village houses unbearably dirty sometimes fail to realize what a toilsome undertaking it would be to carry so far all the water nec- essary for thorough house-cleaning — besides, fuel is piti- fully scanty, and can ill be spared for heating water. Notice how carefully the women shield their faces from a stranger’s gaze — that is a principle of good manners which every Mohammedan girl is taught. Bare feet are riot immodest, but the face must be shielded. Those earthen jars are of local manufacture and cost only a few cents apiece. You notice how erect and grace- ful is the poise of the women, even though they evidently belong to the poorer class. The habit of carrying such burdens on the head gives to the working women of oriental lands a much finer figure and carriage than be- long to the women of the wealthy class. Do you know that this very path around the little hill, where those women are walking with their water-jars freshly filled from the spring, may have been trodden by the torn feet of our Saviour, on that glorious day when He rose from the dead ? 1 You remember Luke’s graphic account of how, on the first Easter morning, two disciples walked out to Emmaus, talking sadly of the terrible facts of two days before, when He whom they loved had died upon the cross and been laid in the tomb. Suddenly, they found a stranger by their side; and soon were telling him of their sorrows. You remember how this Unknown One gently rebuked their want of faith and unfolded to them the revelation of the Christ in the Old Testament, gather- ing from every ancient writer the pictures of a rejected, suffering, dying, rising, conquering Messiah; you recall how in the narration their hearts burned and their vision widened. Now sweep away from the landscape yonder the Amwas of to-day, with its squalid clay huts and its poverty-stricken inhabitants; call up the Emmaus of twen- ty centuries ago, when these slopes were terraced with vineyards, when a contented, prosperous people were dwelling in stone houses, with domed roofs, when the white front of a synagogue was rising before us. Look at that group of three, with glowing countenances, as they enter the town by yonder path. That Stranger is about to leave them, but no. they are urging Him to turn aside and tarry, for it is almost evening. We see them open 1 Luke xxiv: 13-32. Position 5a. 3»I:» p 11. AMWAS 23 the door of a home, and sit down to the evening meal. The Unknown takes the bread and speaks a blessing — and then a light flashes upon their eyes! They see their Master for a moment, and a moment only, as He vanishes from their sight. That is the one event which gives to yonder village a thrilling universal interest — for it is typi- cal of the deeper spiritual revelation which comes to every disciple who yearns to behold the face of his Master. It must be said that modern research makes the identi- fication of this Amwas with the ancient Emmaus doubtful, although tradition points to this place and to no other as the scene of the risen Saviour's appearance to the two disciples. * Let us now follow on the map the main highway be- tween Jaffa and Jerusalem (which is also the route of the modern railway), in a direction southeast of Emmaus, for about seven miles and a half, to our next position. The diverging green lines on Map 2, at 5b, show that we are to look toward the southeast, in the direction of Jerusalem. Position 5b. Kirjath-jearim, long the resting-place of the Sacred Ark Are you surprised at seeing this modern carriage with its pair of horses? Perhaps a pair of camels would seem more appropriate for the changeless East. And this good, hard, level road — we have scarcely looked on one like it thus far in our journey. Most of the roads in this land do not deserve the name, being mere tracks through the fields or scrambling paths over the rocks. But there have been a few good roads for more than a generation past, even in Palestine, and this is one of them, being the broad highway from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Of late years there has been a strong impetus for good roads, especially since the visit of the German emperor; now excellent roads branch out of Jerusalem in many directions. With the good roads comes conveyance by carriage. Formerly the only method of making a tour in Palestine was on horseback, unless one rode in a palankeen, which is a sedan chair, jolting along between two mules, one in front, the other behind. Now, most of the land may be visited by carriage rides over excellent roads connecting the principal cities. *For Supplementary Tour only. Position* 5a, 5b. Maps 11, 2. 24 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND That substantial village yonder on the hillside is Kir- jath-jearim. You remember that in the days when Eli was the chief priest at the northern sanctuary of Shiloh the sacred ark was captured by the Philistines, and kept for a number of months. 1 After its return it was brought up these slopes, perhaps over this very road, and placed in the village upon yonder hill. 2 There it remained while Samuel was growing up, afterward during his rule, and even through the reign of Saul. But after David became king, and his realm was free from the Philistine yoke, a joyous procession came down the hillside and over this road; the priests bearing the ark, the singers and harpers making music, and the young king dancing before the procession, on the way to Jerusalem, greatly to the con- tempt of his queen, as she saw him approaching the royal palace. 3 How vivid and real all these events of three thou- sand years ago seem, as we stand before the spot where they took place, even though the present appearance of the region may be very different from what it was in the an- cient days. * Let us now transfer our position to a point about nine miles northeast of Kirjath-jearim, and four miles to the northwest of Jerusalem. Map 2 marks the spot 5c and shows that we are to face northeast. Position 5c. Mizpah from the southwest, an old center of Hebrew history Look up toward that height, and you see at once the appropriateness of its name, Mizpah, “watch tower.” From yonder height the landscape can be seen in every direction, and the approach of an enemy in war can be observed. We find the name Mizpah (watch tower) given in the Bible to at least seven hilltops in various parts of the land, somewhat to the confusion of Bible readers, and even to Bible geographists. This Mizpah was perhaps more famous than any other. That road where the horse and his rider stand leads directly to Jerusalem, four miles away. According to I Sam. vii 15-7, up that path leading to the summit of the hill walked the men of Israel for a great service of consecration in the days of Samuel, when water was poured out and the people confessed their sins. That tall, ragged rock in the foreground may remind us of the stone that Samuel set up between Miz- 1 I Sam. iv and v. 3 II Sam. vi: 13-19. 2 I Sam. vii: 1. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 5b, 5c. Map 2. MIZPAH 2 5 pah and “Shin,” a point five miles distant, and named “Ebenezer, the stone of help,” to mark the spot to which the Israelites chased the defeated Philistines. 1 Nearly five hundred years passed by in Israel’s history, and then we find that, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (B. C. 587) and the captivity of the people of Judah, Gedaliah, the governor of the land, for a time held his little court on this height. 2 Those buildings on the summit bear the name “Neby Samwil” (the tomb of Sam- uel), from the tradition that Samuel was buried there — a mistake, for we are told that his tomb was at Ramah, five miles to the northeast,* or at Bit Rima, farther north. * Let us walk up that path to the summit of the hill, and look off in various directions. Map 2 shows two pairs of V-lines reaching out from the hilltop. First, we will face north and look over the ground toward Ramallah. Position sd. From Mizpah, north over hill of Gibeon to Ramallah Standing on this hill, nearly 3,000 feet above sea-level, and surveying the scene, we realize that we are in a re- gion different from the plain near the sea, and from the rolling hills of the Shephelah. Here are mountains on every side, and deep ravines between them. Looking to the limit of the landscape on the north, we can dimly see the outline of Ramallah; that is a considerable town, in- habited by Christians, with mission schools and churches, but having no ancient history, unless it be (as only a few scholars think) Ramah, the home of Samuel. But that rounded hill across the valley, with the cultivated fields at its feet, was the ancient Gibeon, the capital of a small league of Amorite cities, whose ambassadors made peace and formed alliance with Joshua by pretending that they had come from a distant land. 4 That peace with the Gib- eonite league led to one of the great battles of the con- quest, sometimes called “the battle of Beth-horon,” but also “the battle of Gibeon,” 5 for it was fought in the valley between the two places. On yonder hill Joshua may have stood on the memorable day when, in the language of the ancient poem, the sun and moon seemed to stand still, so great was the victory.* 'I Sam. vii:io-i2. 4 Joshua ix:3 -27. a Jeremiah xl and xli. 6 Joshua x 17-11. *1 Sam. xxy:i. 6 Joshua x: 12-14. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 5c, 5d. Map 2. 20 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND From various allusions we judge that Gibeon was on the northern boundary line*, between David’s early king- dom of Judah, for more than one struggle between the rival states took place here. 1 You remember that in I Kings iii 14 Gibeon is called “the Great High Place,” and, as you look upon it, you can see how fitting the name was. It was a sanctuary for worship before the building of the Temple. You can see with the mind’s eye the young King Solomon, in royal robes, walking up that height, followed by his court, to worship, for here it was, according to the Biblical records, that he had his vision of the Lord’s presence and the choice between wisdom and conquest was given to him. 2 As we look on that round hilltop how these events in its history march be- fore our eyes! Joshua’s warriors, David’s heroes, Solo- mon’s nobles live again. Now we will turn and look back from this same height of Mizpah toward the city which David made the capital of his kingdom. Mizpah is fourteen miles from Beth-horon on the road to Jerusalem. Turn to Map 2 and find figure 6. The branching lines will indicate the range of our outlook from the top of Mizpah towards Jeru- salem. Position 6. Looking southeast from Mizpah to Jerusalem, four miles away We are standing upon the summit of Mizpah, where Samuel judged, and Saul was made king. Be- low us, on the slope of the hill, is a native of Pales- tine, clad in his abba, a heavy outer-garment, worn when the air is chilly. Across the valley we see a range of hills, and beyond them we are taking our first glimpse of Jerusalem, four miles distant. The buildings in sight belong to the northwestern sec- tion, outside the wall, partly covered by a Russian 1 II Sam. 11 : 12 - 17 . 2 I Kings iii :4- 15. Positions 5d, G. Map 2. MIZPAH 27 settlement, although at the right we can also see a part of the city wall and the towers within it. Look closely at the left, and you can dimly perceive a tall tower. That stands on the Mount of Olives, beyond the city at the east, and is a landmark seen for miles in more than one direction : so we are now looking, not only at Jerusalem, but past it. Notice those roads that climb the mountains and lead to the city. What countless generations of people, — the soldiers of Rameses, of Adoni-bezek the Amorite king, of David, of the Chaldeans, in Bible times, and of Arab conquerors in the middle ages, besides pilgrims of many lands in modern days, have walked up those hills toward the sacred city! We cannot from here see the valley between Jerusalem and that nearer range of hills ; but it was the great highway from Jerusalem past Gibeon, and down the pass of Beth- horon to the plain of Sharon and Joppa by the sea. For PoMltion 7, mnln tour, nee page 30. * If one is approaching Jerusalem by the direct high- way from Jaffa, he has a chance, when about four miles from Jerusalem, to look across some terraced slopes to a village where tradition locates a familiar part of Luke's opening narrative. The spot where we are to stand is marked 6a on Map 2 . Position 6a. Ain Karim, the supposed birthplace of John the Baptist; south from the Jaffa road From Mizpah, our last point of view, we have moved four miles southward; and we are now on the main road between Jaffa and Jerusalem, about four miles from the city. At a first glance the landscape appears wild and desolate. But do you notice those rock walls on the hill before us? Those are built to hold the soil in place, and prevent it from washing down into the valleys. Within those walls you may find the soil thin, but it is very fer- tile. Do you see, also, those rows of olive-trees on the * For Supplementary Tour only. PoNltfouM <1. (In. Map 2. 28 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND farther hillside? Whoever owns them would obtain a good support but for the excessive taxes paid to the rulers, who rob the people to the utmost limit. Still, it must be admitted that the territory of Judah, west of the Dead Sea, has less tillable soil in proportion to its size than Ephraim and Manasseh, in the center of the land. By reason of its retired situation and mountain barriers Judah was kept in safety, but its people were relatively less prosperous than were some of the central tribes. That village, yonder under the hill, is Ain Karim; in the Old Testament called Beth-car. You remember that, at the time of Samuel’s bold attack and victory, the Philistines were driven southward from Mizpah to Beth-car. You can imagine them in wild disorder, flying down the valley immediately at our feet. The chief interest, however, around Ain Karim is not in the Old Testament, but in the New. A tradition, first placed on record in the twelfth century A. D., but doubt- less existing earlier, names that village as the birthplace of John the Baptist. There is no certainty in the opinion, and not much evidence in favor of it, but you can readily imagine the early events of that strange life amid such surroundings. Up yonder hill may have walked Mary, the maiden of Nazareth, on her way to visit the aged Elizabeth. In some such house as those before us their meeting may have taken place, and Mary’s Magnificat may have been chanted. Over hills like these, even if not over these identical hills, the boy John walked, and had lonely com- panionship with God. From this region in his early man- hood he may have gone forth on his mighty mission as the herald of the King. * From Ain Karim we travel eastward about two miles, and find a position nearer to Jerusalem, on the edge of a plain known as the Valley of Rephaim, or “the giants.” Consult Map 2 , and you will find our next standpoint marked 6b. We shall stand at the V’s point and look over the space between its arms. Position 6b. Valley of Rephaim — Old Hebrew battle- ground; Jerusalem at northeast You would scarcely call this a valley. It looks rather like a plain a little below the level of the surrounding * For Supplementary Tour only. Position* 6a, 6h. Map 2. VALLEY OF REPII AIM 29 hills. We note that the Hebrew has several words trans- lated “valley”; and the one used here means “a valley that may be cultivated,” rather a depression than a ravine, as have been the valleys seen in our progress up-country from Jaffa. You can see tokens of tillage upon the plain beyond the road which runs across our landscape, almost east and west. The name Rephaim (“the giants”) takes us back to ages when the memory of an ancient race of lofty stature lingered in the traditions of Israel , 1 * 3 when perhaps a few gigantic men were famed in the land — Such men as Goliath,* whom David killed at Elah, not many miles to the west. In David’s time no less than three important engagements were fought with the Phil- istines on this plain, in sight of the walls of Jerusalem. You remember that, while David was hiding in the great cave of Adullam, only a few miles outside our vision on the left, a sudden longing came over him for a drink of water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem, his child- hood’s home.* There was a Philistine army encamped upon this plain, but David’s three heroes broke through their lines, ran to Bethlehem, four miles to the south, and brought back water, which David would not drink, but poured out as an offering unto his God. Again we see that plain thronged with Philistine warriors, shortly after David was made king over the tribes. David's men came over this hill, where we are standing, fell suddenly upon their camp, won a signal victory, and burned the idol- gods, which had fallen into their hands . 4 Again, perhaps on this very hill, we see David’s little army hidden in a forest, waiting for the signal of a rustling sound in the tops of the mulberry trees; and then, with a shout, rushing down the slope, and again sweeping away the Philistines from the plain.® No wonder that Israel cherished the memory of victories like these, won almost under the walls of their capital. Yes, that is Jerusalem, crowning the hills in the dis- tance. We are now southwest of the city, two miles dis- tant from its walls. For our next view we will go around the city on our left, and look at it from the northern shoulder of the Mount of Olives, an elevation known as Scopus. * II Sam. v:i7-ai. 8 II Sam. v:22-as. 1 Numbers xjiirja. *1 Sam. xvii:4. 3 II Sam. xxiii : 1 3- 1 7. Position Ob. Mnp 2. 30 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Now consult our map numbered 3 and notice where we are next to stand, at a point marked 7 on the northern shoulder of the long ridge of Olivet. Mizpah, that other mountain from which we looked at the Holy City, is four miles to the northwest. The two long lines reaching southwest from that point include between them the ground over which we shall look. Position 7. Jerusalem from Mount Scopus at the northeast, showing nearly the whole city That smiling woman, sitting astride her donkey, has seen Jerusalem so many times that she is famil- iar with the scene and prefers to look at us strangers standing here on Mount Scopus, ready for our first near-by view of the city. This spot where we stand is the northern peak of the Mount of Olives, a range of hills about 2,600 feet high, on the east of the city, somewhat crescent-shaped in trend from the north- east to southeast of the four peaks. We are stand- ing due northeast of the Temple, and about a mile distant from it. From this point, Titus, the Roman conqueror, took his first view of the city when he began its siege 69 A.D. The valley between us and the walls is that of the brook Kedron, but the brook flows on the surface for only about two months in the year. Looking above the clump of trees in the valley you see a point where the wall of the city makes a turn. The wall on the right of that corner is the northern wall ; that on the left is the eastern wall. Over the eastern wall you discern the rounded Dome of the Rock, wrongly called “the Mosque of Omar,” standing where once the Temple rose in its glory. Our point of view is too remote for us to Position 7. Map 3. JERUSALEM 3 1 locate many other buildings in the city ; but we shall visit and study them in detail later. Now follow the northern wall to the right, past a square building outside of it, to a point where a tower rises above it and projects out in front. That is the Damascus Gate. Every visitor to Jerusalem, whether he be tourist or pilgrim, needs first of all to obtain a few general views of the city and its surroundings. Let us open our city map again and find on the northern side, just outside of the Damascus gate, our next position upon a tall building outside the northern wall. From that roof we shall take our next view of Jeru- salem. The map shows us that the Jerusalem of to-day within the wall is divided into four sections, each inhabited by the people of a different religion. The Mohammedan quarter is on the northeast; the Christian quarter— occupied by Greek and Latin (Roman Catholic) Christians — on the northwest ; the Armenian quarter on the southwest, and the Jewish on the southeast. During the past thirty years a “new Jerusalem” has grown up outside the walls, particularly on the northwest and the north (we saw it from Mizpah), covering more area than the old city within the walls and including almost as large a number of people. According to the latest and best statistics, the entire population, within and without the walls, is between sixty and seventy thousand. Now let us move to our next position, indicated on the Jerusalem map (Map 3), by the figure 8 in red, near the Damascus gate. From there we shall look in a southerly direction across the city. I’oMitlonM T, 8. Mnp 3. 32 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Notice that the lines spreading from 8 and bound- ing our view include at the west the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Position 8. Damascus Gate in the north wall ; look- ing south past church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem From the roof of a building just outside the wall we can look across the city over the roofs of its houses. Not much like our bustling American cities, with their tall buildings and wide streets, and varied architecture, is it? There is almost a melancholy monotony in these little one-story and two-story houses, with their bulging domes. As for streets, there is only one in sight; you can only guess at most of them from the lines of dead walls. These houses are typical Oriental dwellings. You can see that each one fronts upon a court, that it has a plat- form on a part of the roof, and that it has a “large upper room” 1 under the dome. All the rain that falls on these roofs is saved with great care for household use — the scarcity of water here is a great hindrance to cleanliness and healthful conditions of living. The large dome on our right shows us the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which formerly the whole Christian world accepted as covering the hill Calvary, where our Lord was crucified and lay for two days in Joseph’s tomb. That modern-looking tower directly before us occupies part of the site of the Muristan, in the Middle Ages the castle and hos- pice of the Knights of St. John. That building is now the property of the German emperor, and was 1 Mark xiv:i5 and Acts 1:13. Position 8. Map 3. JERUSALEM 33 recently restored. In the distance toward the left we see the domes of the two principal Jewish syna- gogues located in the Jewish quarter of the city. That narrow street running diagonally toward the wall is Damascus Street, crossing the city from south to north. On the right are the Latin and Ar- menian quarters ; on the left is the Moslem quarter. Just before us you see a part of the wall, two towers of which protect the gate between them. The wall seems slight for defence, a modern gun four miles away would blow it in pieces; but it has served for centuries to protect the city against the raids of Arabs coming up from the desert. Notice those pinnacles, and little overhanging boxes for watch- men ; you perceive how they command the entrance to the gate. The present wall was built about 1540 by Suleiman the Magnificent, the greatest of all the sultans. He reigned while Henry VIII was King of England and Charles V was Emperor of Germany, and while Martin Luther was awakening Europe from its sleep of centuries. This entrance is one of the main portals to the city, called the Damascus gate because from it runs the northern road to Damascus, just as the principal gate on the west of Jerusalem is called the Jaffa gate, because from it starts the road to Jaffa on the coast. Through a gate near this spot Jesus walked bearing His cross to a hill not far from where we are now standing. 1 Through this gate came forth one Saul of Tarsus, bound for Damascus over this road, little dreaming of the vision that awaited him. 2 When Saul, three years later, came back to the city, he entered it through* this same portal. He may 1 Mark xv:ao, 2 1. * Acts ix: 1, 2 . 'on! lion N. Map 3. 34 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND have found Peter and Barnabas waiting for him under that arch. But when Saul was making his visits to Jerusalem, 1 he saw none of these buildings outside the wall. These are the work of the twen- tieth century; if you visited this spot at any time before 1900 you would have found a little Arab encampment here, with black tents, and a solemn looking camel or two. If “the Jerusalem that now is” were the only Jeru- salem, you would not now be gazing upon it with such interest. You look back through the centuries and see another Jerusalem that stood here — a city “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, the city of the Great King.” 2 You see Abraham, father of the faithful and friend of God, giving hom- age to Melchizedek as king, and paying tithes to him as priest of the Most High. 3 You see Abra- ham’s descendants four hundred years later, grown to a mighty host, sweeping past this city in their swift march of conquest. 4 You see David’s palace rising yonder, not far from the spot where the Tower of David now stands behind the Sepulchre Church. 5 Those gray hills in the distance were once covered with the tents of the Assyrians, when Sennacherib sent his insulting message, and the prophet Isaiah brought back Jehovah’s answer. 6 Chaldean be- siegers, Roman armies, medieval knights — all in turn have stormed and possessed this old city. These are the visions that sweep before us as we look over this wilderness of bulging roofs. The Jerusalem of to-day is a “lorn Syrian town,” but the Jerusalem seen by the inward eye is the Holy City, 1 Acts 1x126; Gal. i:i 8 . 4 Judges i: 8 . 2 Psalms xlviii:2. 5 II Sam. v:n. 3 Genesis xiv:i 8 . 6 II Kings xviii, xix. Position S. Map 3. JERUSALEM 35 the center of the world’s interest, an image of the heavenly city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 1 We will follow this wall toward the right around to its western side, and take our next view outside another of the gates of the city. The Jerusalem map (Map 3) marks our position with the number 9. Position 9. The Jaffa Gate — from outside Here we are struck by the old and the new in strong contrast. That building on the right, with its castellated roof and projecting sentinel-boxes, is evidently old, and its lower courses of masonry are much older than the upper courses. That is the citadel or garrison tower of the city, called also the Tower of David. It may be that David built his for- tress for the defence of the city on that spot, 2 al- though recent authorities incline to another place at the foot of Mount Moriah as the earliest section of the city. The tower directly over the gate is plainly modern. It was built soon after the visit of the Ger- man emperor a few years ago. You observe that there is an open road to the right around this new tower, leading into the city. That also is new. Be- fore the arrival of Emperor Wilhelm a section of the wall was taken down to enable his carriage to enter the city, and it has not been rebuilt. Now, other carriages can enter the city, although there is scant room for them in its narrow, crowded streets. You note a row' of dilapidated conveyances near the gate ; those are used for bringing tourists up from the rail- way station, and for short excursions in the country. 1 Hebrews xi:io. a 1 1 Sam. v : 9 . l*OMltluii« S, !). Map 3. 36 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Of all the gates now open in the walls of Jerusa- lem, this is the one through which the largest tide of travel passes ; for as its name indicates, it is the terminus of the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem. At all hours between sunrise and sunset continuous streams of men and women, donkeys, horses and camels, are going in and coming out. Over the gate is a guard-room, with long, narrow openings for windows, one on the west side, three on the north side. In just such a room as that, in a “chamber over the gate,” at another city across the Jordan, King David sat once, his heart throbbing with anxiety for his son Absalom j 1 while through such a slit as that the watchman peered and listened for tidings of the battle. Try to people this ancient entrance to the city with the historic figures that have passed through it. Solomon in his glory, Isaiah with his eyes fixed afar on the future, Nehemiah and his retinue — all may have gone in and out here. Jesus and the twelve apostles must have often passed under that arch. When Saul of Tarsus, newly converted, but not yet become Paul, was hurried out of the city by the dis- ciples, it was through this gate, most likely, that he went down to Caesarea ; 2 by the same door Peter started forth to visit the churches on the seashore plain, to raise Dorcas to life and to behold his vision at Joppa . 3 We will climb to the summit of this new tower by the Jaffa gate, and take our next view along the western wall of the. city. The Jerusalem map marks 10 the spot where we are to stand and shows by 1 II Sam. xviii:24-33. 3 Acts ix:32-43. 2 Acts ix:3o. Position* 9, 10. Map 3. JERUSALEM 37 means of lines diverging from io the ground over which we shall look. Position io. Jerusalem on the west — view south — from new tower over the walls Close at hand stands another part of the Tower of David confronting us, grim and dark, and mas- sive, with its tall watch-tower rising above the wall from which the coming foe was seen afar. We know that we are facing south. The map prepared us to find that high wall cutting off the view at the left and to discern that long, dusty road leading down into the valley of Hinnom. The height be- yond the road must, of course, be the Hill of Evil Counsel, where tradition says the plot was made for the betrayal of Jesus. 1 The railway station, where trains come in from Jaffa, fifty-three miles away at the west (right), is ten minutes’ distance down that road. Look down that ancient moat that yawns below 1 Jerusalem was defended by nature as well as by that strong wall. You can trace the road down into the Valley of the sons of Hinnom, and can see it winding among the hills toward Beth- lehem, six miles to the south. Notice on the right a curving wall, making a half-circle, and a depres- sion beyond it, bounded by an embankment crossing the valley. That is the traditional Pool of Gihon, now called Birket es Sultan — the Sultan’s Pool. You observe that just before reaching this pool the road divides; one part of it mounts the hill, follow- ing the wall to the Zion Gate on the south. Meanwhile, here is the ancient tower close at hand. Do you notice that the lower courses of stone 1 Luke xxii:3>6. [*»Nlflon 10. Map 3. 38 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND are heavier, rougher and evidently more ancient than those above? If we could look more minutely at its foundation we should find them of still earlier workmanship. Until recently it was generally be- lieved that David, when crowned king of all the Twelve Tribes, found a fortress here in the hands of the Jebusites, who had held their own through two centuries, right in the midst of the conquering Israelites. It may not have been as lofty and well built as this, but, if on this spot, it was protected by that deep ravine at its foot; and the Jebusites had such confidence in the strength of its position that they taunted David by placing on the wall “the blind and the lame.” 1 Of course the structure we see to- day cannot be the same that was rebuilt in David’s time, for the masonry is not old enough, but tradi- tion has long identified it with his name. The best recent authorities, however, find the site of the Jebusite castle on the eastern hill, just south of the temple area; but the story of David’s storm- ing of the fortress becomes exceedingly vivid, as we look upon these old walls. A new chapter in Israel’s history opens with David’s accession. He found the Twelve Tribes disorganized almost to anarchy, ground into the dust by foreign oppression, their Tabernacle destroyed, their Ark in hiding, their priesthood wanderers. David unified the nation, made the Philistines, Am- monites, and Arameans their subjects rather than their masters, carried the arms of Israel to Damas- cus, and established an empire at least twice as large as the territory ruled by Saul. And — what was of more enduring influence — he reorganized the 1 II Sam. v:6-8; I Chron. xi. 7 . Position 10. Map 3. JERUSALEM 39 system of worship, established the ark in new state, and mightily strengthened the religious life of the people. All these achievements of David rise to our thought as we gaze at the massive walls of this old castle. But David is not the only one whom these gray stones call up from the past. This fortress may have been the official residence of the Roman gov- ernor in the time of Christ ; the evidence is well-nigh balanced between this building and the tower of Antonia, north of the temple enclosure. It may be that within those walls, on the darkest day of earth’s history, our Saviour stood in chains before Pontius Pilate, was mocked by Roman soldiers and scourged, and sentenced to the cross . 1 Over this very road, leading up to the city, the pilgrims of old walked, singing “the songs of the ascents.” Can you not almost see a company of these worshippers coming up the hill, and as they look across the ravine to the walls and the castle, hear them chant, “Our feet shall stand within thy gate, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together; whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.” 2 For l'onltlon 11, main tour. Her page 43. * Let us now walk down the valley, following that Beth- lehem road before us, and from the lower embankment of the pool look back up the valley toward the city walls and the new tower. Map 3 marks our standpoint there 10a. Position 10a. Gihon cattle market and Jerusalem’s west wall northeast from the Bethlehem road You see, skirting the ravine on the right, the road upon which we looked down from our position on the tower. ‘John xviii:28. 8 Psalm cxxii. # For Supplementary Tour only. PoMltloiiM 10, 10a. Mnp 3. 40 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND A grove of olive-trees occupies the hillside, and beyond it rises the old wall — not so very ancient, since it dates from the great Sultan Suleiman, in the middle of the six- teenth century. You see the Tower of David, with the cas- tellated roofs, and beyond it the new tower over the Jaffa gate. Again call to mind the varied hosts that have walked or ridden upon that road. Possibly, Abraham and his little army walked down here after meeting Melchize- dek 1 ; Canaanite warriors under Melchizedek’s successors; the soldiers of Judah and Simeon in later days. 2 David’s heroes may have marched up this path on their way to storm the Jebusite stronghold*; countless hosts of pil- grims singing “psalms of degrees” (or ascents) on their way up to the Temple. 4 Do you observe that the buildings in the distance at the left have a distinctly modern look? That is one of the tokens of the new Jerusalem that is rising outside the walls of the old. The last forty years have witnessed a wonderful growth in this city. Its population has doubled, and new houses have arisen, until now the dwellers out- side the wall are more numerous than those within it. Look directly before us, here on the viaduct, for another sign of modernism — those square cans of kerosene oil on the donkey’s back and on the ground. America now sends the oil that lights the houses of Jerusalem. From the embankment we are looking up the Lower Pool of Gihon, now called Birket es Sultan — the Sul- tan’s Pool — from the name of its builder, the Sultan Suleiman. It is 555 feet long, north and south, and 220 feet wide across the valley. But isn’t a reservoir an un- usual place for the holding of a cattle market? In fact, the pool is filled for only a month or two months in the year, and, as the water runs out, its upper floor is used by the cattle-dealers as their headquarters. It is possible that, if we could look directly over the dam on which the donkey and his friends are standing, we might find something of a pool of water just below: but a large part of the reservoir is dry for nine months in the year. If this reservoir were repaired, and connected with a source of supply, it would contain almost water enough for the entire city, but, like everything else under the Turkish rule, it is left in ruins. By the way, you will ask where the Jerusalemites of 1 Genesis xiv:i8-24. 3 II Sam. v:6-9. 2 Judges i : 1 -8. 4 Psalms cxx to cxxxiv. Position 10*i. Map 3. JERUSALEM 41 to-day, a population approaching seventy thousand, obtain their water? Almost exclusively from the rain on the house-roofs, which is carefully garnered in cisterns, though not the slightest care is taken by the native inhabitants to keep it from contamination. Wise visitors drink no water in Jerusalem unless it has been boiled and filtered. A dry season makes water very scarce in the modern city, but in all the stories of ancient sieges there is no mention of water lacking. That is because there were under- ground aqueducts bringing an abundant supply from dis- tant sources, like Solomon’s Pools beyond Bethlehem. * Let us go down the valley still farther, cross to the Hill of Evil Counsel, and. standing at the foot of the hill, look across the Valley of Hinnom toward the city wall. Map 3 marks our position 10b, and indicates by V-lines the reach of our view. Position 10b. Jerusalem, from across the Valley of Hinnom to Olivet, looking northeast This pile of rocks at our feet does not look like a ruin; and it is not. If we could look behind us we should see that it is made of the debris of a stone quarry in the side of the hill. We are standing just at the foot of the hill, where it is said that Judas Iscariot met the emissaries of the chief priests and made his bad bargain for the betrayal of his Lord. 1 The hill before us, with a few gardens upon its sloping side, is Mount Zion. You can see the southern wall of the city upon its summit. You notice a sharp turn in the wall, where it slopes down into a depression, and beyond the depression rises again. If you look closely down the hillside from that lowest point in the wall you can see that there is a slight sign of another valley. That is the Valley of the Tyropoeon, or “of the Cheesemakers,” once much more distinctly marked than it is now. Jose- phus (A. D. 90) said that it ran like the horn of the moon around Mount Zion, forming a division in the city. The third valley, the Valley of the Kedron, can be distinctly seen, and, just beyond it, on the side of the Mount of Olives, the modern village of Siloam. Between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives lies Mount Moriah, where stood of old the Temple.* Its site is now occupied by the so-called Mosque of Omar, properly the Dome of the 1 Matt. xxvi:i 4 . * II Chronicles iii : 1 . * For Supplementary Tour only. PoNitlonH 10a, 10b. Map 3. 42 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Rock, which you can see above the city wall. The slope below the wall outside the Temple, a lower spur or foot- hill of Mount Moriah, was anciently known as Ophel. On that hill, partly outside and partly inside of the present wall, stood Solomon’s palace, with its ascent leading up to the House of the Lord. 1 Some of the most eminent archaeologists believe that on the Ophel hillside, and not on Mount Zion, was the earliest settlement of Jerusalem, with David’s castle and David’s palace; or, rather, that on the southern side of Mount Moriah was the original Zion, the name being later transferred to the western hill when that became the principal section of the city. So from our present point of view we see the three principal valleys — Hinnom, Tyropoeon and the Kedron; and the three prin- cipal hills — Zion, Moriah and Olivet. Just a little beyond our line of vision on the right the three valleys unite and form a great ravine leading southward. Can you trace three roads leading across the Mount of Olives? Over those roads the Saviour and his disciples may have walked in their visits from Bethany to Jerusalem and on their return. We shall look again at the Mount of Olives, its paths and its localities, where we can see them more dis- tinctly. * Let us walk across this valley and follow toward the right the line of the ancient wall at the foot of Zion and Ophel, to a point just around the southeastern corner of the ancient city, near where the three valleys, Hinnom, Tyropoeon and Kedron unite. Here on the side of Mount Ophel, we find our next position. Map 3 indicates it by the number 10c. Position ioc. The Pool of Siloam I wonder if that path where the woman stands is the one over which the blind man felt his way when he was sent by our Lord to this pool? Do you suppose that he crept down those rough steps — a dangerous passage for one without eyes? You remember the story as told by St. John, 1 how Jesus mixed up mud, with his fingers placed a patch of it on each of the blind man’s eyes, and then said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.” How pitiful he must have looked, staff in hand, picking his path through the streets of the city! “Here, blind man, let me wipe off those spatters of dirt!” “No; leave *1 Kings vii:i- 8 ; I Kings x:s. 2 John ixn- 7 . * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 10b, 10c. Map 3. JERUSALEM 43 them alone; the Master put them there, and I am going to wash them off in the Pool of Siloam. Can you show me the way?” That was his cross, his confession of Christ, a confession that everyone must make in some way, if he would be saved. Can you not see him slowly walking down that path, tapping with his staff the rocks on either side as he goes? Look at him clambering down those steep stone steps! Now he has reached the Pool. See him dipping up the water with his hands and washing off those brown earth-stains from his face! Now he looks up with a startled, amazed expression. A light flashes from those eyeballs, no longer white as of old. The man can see! How strange the new sense of sight must have seemed to him! No doubt, from force of habit he shut his eyes, over and over again, and felt his way along the path as he had used to do before. But are we sure that this is the place where the mir- acle was wrought? There is scarcely any doubt as to the place. From very remote ages this has been the Pool of Siloam, supplied from the Virgin’s Fountain up the val- ley. This wall which now surrounds it was built three centuries ago. The surroundings in ancient times were not very different from those at present, except that this valley was more cultivated and in better order; and in those days the water was fresh and clean, as it is not now. The hills in the background are Mount Zion on the left and the Mount of Olives on the right. Between these you catch a glimpse of Ophel at its lower point. From Position io we looked down the western valley from the new tower by the Jaffa Gate. Now, having passed down the Valley of Hinnom to its end, where the three valleys — Hinnom, Tyropceon and Kedron — are united, we will pause near that place at the foot of the Hill of Evil Counsel, and take our next view. Position ii. The Valley of the Kedron and Village of Siloam We are now looking up the Kedron Valley. Do you see again, on the extreme left, a bell-like dome, INimHIuiim 10c, 11. Map 3. 44 TRAVELLING IN THE IIOLY LAND looming far on high? That is the Mosque el-Aksa. The wall in front of it is at once the wall of the city and also of the Temple enclosure, at its southeastern corner, where it rises highest above the valley. Two hillsides are standing prominently before us. That on the right is the southern peak of the Mount of Olives, called the Mount of Offense. Can you imag- ine that up there, where the little houses now cling to the cliff and form the village of Siloam, is the spot where King Solomon built a temple of idols, right in full view of the Lord’s House on Mount Moriah ? 1 No wonder that it bears the name Mount of Offense, since such abominable rites were cele- brated upon its summit. The hill on the left is also connected with Solomon’s memory, for it is the dis- trict called Ophel, a spur of Mount Moriah ; and on yonder slope Solomon built his palace adjoining the Temple . 2 Can you call up those buildings, Solo- mon’s “house of the forest of Lebanon;” his Tem- ple, where the Dome of the Rock now stands, and his idol shrine — as you look at these hills on either side? And the valley itself, almost at our feet, is the very place where Solomon was crowned king, :i by his father David’s command ; for this is the point where the two valleys, Hinnom from which we have come, and the Valley of Kedron, meet, as you will find them on the map, one being on the southwest, the other on the east of the city. What a strange character was Solomon — wisest and most foolish of men — uttering sagacious proverbs and living a life of lust and sin ; making his city and his empire mag- nificent, yet laying such burdens of taxes upon his 1 I Kings xin-13. "I Kings K32-40. 2 I Kings vii:i-i2; I Kings x.4, 5. Position 11. Map JERUSALEM 45 people as to drive them into revolution building the house of God and rearing a house of idols in sight of it. His reign has been called the golden age ; we might rather call it the gilded age of Israel, for under all its splendor was decay. Now look as far as you can up the valley. Just in the gorge, between Moriah and Olivet, do you see a little pointed dome? That is the so-called “tomb of Absalom” in the King’s Dale . 2 Remember, too, that we are standing at the foot of the Hill of Evil Counsel, near the Field of Blood, bought with the money paid for the betrayal of Jesus. Solomon, Absalom, Iscariot, — these are three men whom these ravines bring to mind! Where is the brook Kedron, which our map indi- cates as winding down the valley? It flows on the surface for only a few weeks after the spring rains; the rest of the year it percolates far underground, and finds a channel to the Dead Sea, twenty miles away. For I*ONltlon 12, main tour, nrr pafce 47. * We will walk up the valley of the Kedron, to a place just beyond the village of Siloam, marked na on Map 3. From that spot on the Mount of Olives we will look across the valley, over the space between the two long, green lines, obtaining another view of the city. Position 11a. Jerusalem, beautiful for situation, from the southeast, showing the Temple site Looking over these stone walls and across the Kedron Valley, let us fix our eyes upon the corner of the wall di- rectly before us. On the left the wall runs west for some distance, then southward; on the right it runs northward. That open square of which the wall forms two sides is the Haram-es-Sherif, or “Noble Sanctuary,” covering in 1 I Kings xii: 3 * 4 . * For Supplementary Tour only. * 11 Sam. xviiiriS. Positions 11, 1 In. Map 3. 46 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND part the area occupied in ancient times by the Temple and its courts. You see a large dome surmounting an octag- onal building in the middle of the square. That is the Dome of the Rock, generally called “the Mosque of Omar,” but wrongly, for it was not built by the Caliph Omar, and, strictly speaking, it is not a mosque. But it is a building of surpassing interest, for directly under that dome is the great slanting rock on which stood the altar in the Temple of old . 1 Notice also another dome just in- side the southern wall of the enclosure. That is over the Mosque el-Aksa, which we shall visit later. Beyond the two buildings already noted you can see the wall on the other and western side of the square running north and south. Follow that inner wall to the right and you find a tower or minaret beside a large building. That is the Turkish governor’s castle, on the site of the ancient tower of Antonia. It is the traditional place of Pilate’s Prae- torium, where Jesus stood before Pilate and was con- demned to death , 2 and where also Paul was taken for refuge when he had been seized by the Jews in the Tem- ple . 3 You see how the building overlooks the Temple square: from the stairs which anciently led up from the Temple court to that tower Paul made his address to the people . 4 Now let us note just a few places in the city beyond the Temple area. Looking over that group of cypress trees you see a tower, more modern in appearance than most of the buildings: that marks part of the Muristan, in the middle ages the headquarters of the Knights of St. John, a Christian order of soldiers organized to defend the city from the Saracens. Look closely to the right of the Mu- ristan, and a little beyond it: can you see two domes side by side? Those surmount the Church of the Holy Sepul- chre, the traditional place of the cross and the tomb of Jesus. The spire beyond them belongs to a hospice, or refuge for pilgrims of the Latin Church. We shall look more closely at those buildings later, but it is well to note their locations and their relations to each other. Now, looking outside the city wall, you see two roads. One follows the eastern wall quite closely. You have noticed many white dots beside the road? Those are Mohammedan tombs; and they are deemed exceedingly sacred, for Mohammedans from all over the Orient come 1 II Chron. iii:i. 3 Acts XXL27-34. •John xviii:28, 29. 4 Actsxxi:40. Position 11a. Map 3. JERUSALEM 47 here to die and be buried just as near that wall as possi- ble, believing that in this spot the resurrection of the just will take place. The other road turns down the hill into the valley of the Kedron. It would lead, if we could fol- low it, past the Garden of Gethsemane and then up the Mount of Olives. If we go across the Kedron Valley and stand on a path just below the city wall, quite near where the wall turns the corner, we shall be able to see still more things of interest in the valley. Consult Map 3, where our standpoint is marked 12, and the long lines diverging from 12 show that we are to look northeast toward another part of the long ridge of Olivet. Position 12. Tombs of the Prophets in the King’s Dale, Valley of Kedron How steep the side of Mount Moriah is at this point! It is almost a precipice down to the Kedron Valley, whose bed is out of sight far below. You recognize from the map that the rocky hillside be- fore us is the Mount of Olives. Those white stones in irregular rows are Jewish tombs. All around Jerusalem, in every direction, are vast cemeteries, where innumerable multitudes lie buried. Jews will journey to Jerusalem from every land of earth, and will pay large sums for burial-places in this valley ; they believe that the resurrection will begin here, and that those who rise from their graves on these hillsides have a sure passport to heaven. Then, too, they count the ground all the more sacred on ac- count of the prophets who lie, as they believe, buried among their own graves. You see three tombs standing prominently. They are all hewn out of the l*OMltlonM lln, 12. Map 3. 48 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND native rock, just as it lies. That on the right, in a recess, is called the tomb of Zacharias, and com- memorates the prophet who was slain “between the temple and the altar.” 1 That excavation with pillars at its door is said to be the tomb of St. James, the Lord’s brother, 2 who was martyred in the precincts of the Temple, about A.D. 68, revered alike by Jews and Christians. That on the left is Absalom’s tomb or pillar, 3 which we saw awhile ago from afar down the valley. The lower part of this is one stone, hewn in situ, and hollowed out within : the conical summit is composed of blocks joined together. No- tice how bushes have planted themselves in the crevices. Can you see that it is much more damaged and broken than the tomb of Zacharias? That is because every Jew who passes by throws a stone at it, to testify his detestation of David’s ungrateful son. It must be admitted that there is no reason except tradition for accepting any of these names ; and the tradition itself is not more than a thousand years old. You see that there are a few olive trees here and there on the rocky slope ; less than two thousand years ago our Lord and his apostles saw this hill terraced throughout with olive orchards and vine- yards. Look closely, and you can trace three paths leading over the Mount of Olives. That peculiar marble building on the side of the hill looks out of place in this old land, does it not? It is a Russian church, as one may suppose, from its style of archi- tecture. Up the path on the left of that church, and over the depression in the hill, went King David 1 Matt. xxiii:35. 2 Galatians i : 19 ; Janies i:i. Position 12. Mnp 3. 8 II Samuel xviii:i8. JERUSALEM 49 once, in sorrow, flying from his son Absalom. 1 And over one of the paths — we know not which — David’s greater descendant walked on that day when he left the Temple forever; from yonder hill-top he looked upon Jerusalem and foretold the doom gathering over it. 2 This path in which we are standing follows the eastern wall of the city and of the Temple. Trace it on Map 4 along the wall and you come to the Golden Gate. There we shall stand next, and look directly east, down upon the Garden of Gethsemane ; beyond it we shall obtain another view of the Mount of Olives. The spot from which we are to look off is marked 13 on Map 3, where our eastward out- look is definitely marked by diverging lines. Position 13. Garden of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives from the eastern wall That Russian church again projects itself into our view on the hillside. The pointed tower on the hill- top belongs to a Russian building, crowning the Mount of Olives at its highest point, — a prominent object in the landscape from many distant points. The other tower, at the right and farther away, be- longs to a Moslem building. Look at those little domes, poised like Oriental turbans on the minarets! Those same three roads over the Mount of Olives, here they are again ; that on the left is the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, going down hill all the way after it has passed yonder mountain. That is the path by which the man journeyed who fell among thieves in the wilderness beyond, 3 and by 3 Luke x: 3 o. 1 II Sam. xv: 23 - 3 o. 2 Matt, xxivn- 3 . Volition* 12, 13. Map 3. 50 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND which David went sorrowfully when he escaped from Absalom . 1 The next road going over the Mount, farther to the right, is the most direct, though the steepest, road to Bethany. The lower road, which runs sharply to the right, may also be the one over which Christ rode when he entered the city in triumph during the week of the Passion, only five days before his crucifixion . 2 Try to call up that event, for it certainly occurred on this mountainside, when palms were waving above, garments were strewn below, and hosannas rent the air. The two- story building at the fork of the roads, near the foot of the hill, at the left, is a private house built and owned by a wealthy Russian, a member of the Greek church. The building on the brow of the hill at the left also belongs to a Russian owner. It is very difficult for Christians to secure titles to real estate here, but wealth and political influence together sometimes accomplish it. Now look at that enclosed garden where the three roads unite, where tall cypress trees rise, and a few olive trees grow in the further corner. That is the traditional Garden of Gethsemane, where, only four days after the hosannas rang, our Saviour bowed in solitary prayer . 3 These aged olive trees may be the descendants of those whose “little gray leaves” rustled on that night, as if in sympathy with the suffering Saviour . 4 Even though there is a possi- bility of doubt as to whether those enclosed trees stand on the very place where He suffered alone while the disciples slept, still we know that the place cannot be more than a few rods from the spot 1 II Sam. xv:23*3o. 3 Matt. xxvi:36. 2 Matt, xxin-12. * See A Ballad of Trees and the Master, by Sidney Lanier. Position 13 . Map 3 . GARDEN OF GETKSEMANE 51 where those trees stand. We know it was down in this valley that Jesus came on that last night, and probably to this very part of it just before us. It will do us good to come and stand here many times. Let us go down the hill, follow the path that crosses the valley and enter that sacred Garden. Position 14. Ancient olive trees, Garden of Geth- semane We are now looking westward across the valley of the Kedron. You see the eastern wall of the old Temple area, and a low tower with two closed arches under it. That is the Golden Gate, in front of which we were standing at Position 13. The gate is closed now, although it was once a much-used entrance to the Haram-es-Sherif or Noble Sanctuary beyond. Mohammedans say that a prediction was made centuries ago of a conqueror-— not a Mussul- man — who will at some time enter the city by that gate, and take possession. In order to postpone the evil day as long as possible, they have closed the gate and filled up the wall. We are now in the traditional Garden of Geth- semane, and it is not impossible that the tradition is authentic. Jesus and his disciples may have walked from the upper room on Mount Zion through the Temple grounds, as at the Passover season it was lighted and open all night. They perhaps passed through that now-closed Golden Gate, and walked down into the valley, finding this garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just beside all three of the roads leading over the hill to Bethany. Look at that ancient olive tree just before us! Although the ’oMitluu.M 12, 14. Mup 2. 5 2 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND olive lives to a great age, it can hardly be nineteen hundred years old ; moreover, we are told that in the siege of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, the Romans cut down all the trees on Olivet. But from the roots of an older tree on that spot this tree may have grown up. Near this very ground and among trees like these, Jesus bowed in prayer on the night before the cross. 1 Within these walls, perhaps, he was kissed by Judas and led away to his trial and his death. 2 Can you not with the mind’s eye see him kneeling there and saying, Not my will, but thine be done ? Can you not see the three sleeping disciples by the gate yon- der? Can you not almost hear the tread of the armed company led by Judas, walking these paths? How real the story becomes when we look at the spot near which it took place ! As we leave this sacred garden, close beside its entrance we meet a group most repulsive, but neces- sary for us to look upon, if we would understand many passages in both the Old Testament and the New. Position 15. “Unclean! Unclean !” Wretched lepers outside Jerusalem Can you endure to look at those miserable people, pleading for alms from the passers-by? There are generally forty or fifty of them outside the city. Look at the stumps of hands from which the fingers have dropped off! See those twisted and deformed feet ! There is a mystery about this terrible malady, which has not yet been fathomed. No one knows its origin. It comes upon its victims through a 1 Matt xxvi 136. 2 Matt, xxvi 147-49. Positions 14, 15. Map 3. LEPERS 53 strange law of heredity, which will leap over sev- eral generations, and then break out anew ; but there are cases which have no traceable connection with any previous leprosy. Wherever we see it in this land, it takes us back to the old Bible times. And we see it often, for lepers are to be found in nearly every large city. Here by the Garden of Gethsemane a number of them are gathered ; and there is a gate on the south of the Jerusalem wall where they congregate. These three lepers are like the ten whom Jesus met ; 1 they may beg for help in horrible, unintel- ligible sounds — for the disease rots the inner as well as the outer organs — but they never attempt to touch the passer. They are shut out of cities, and live by themselves in loathsome communities , 2 where leprous women have children, in infancy fair as others, but the terrible curse is upon them and is certain to develop later. Perhaps the strangest phase of the disease is that it is almost painless. Dreadful as are the sores on a leper’s body, he scarcely feels them. What a picture all this is of that other, deeper, deadlier disease of sin, a disease so insidious that it is hard for the sinner to believe in his own guilt, ready as he is to see the same symptoms in others; a disease which no human power can cure, or even arrest; a disease which when it is finished brings forth death ; 3 a disease which can be reached and healed alone by the transforming touch of the Son of God! 1 Luke xvii:i2-ig. s James L15. u II Kings vii 13. Vsitioti 15. Mup 3. 54 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND We will walk up the Mount of Olives, and from a point near its summit, marked 16 on our Jerusa- lem map, look due west upon the city. If we take a minute to study the map and to notice just what part of the city is included between the two lines spreading from 16, we know what part we are to see. Position 1 6. Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, from the Mount of Olives We are looking down the slope of the Mount of Olives. You can see here and there the traces of terraces, once cultivated, but now neglected, and bearing only a sparse vegetation. At the foot of the hill we discern the cypress trees and olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane; and beyond it, on the slope of Mount Moriah, more terraces and more olive trees, better cultivated. How plainly we see now the innumerable gravestones which line the hill outside the wall ! There we observe again the closed Golden Gate, and beyond it the open square in which rises the Dome of the Rock. Notice that the platform on which the Dome stands is much higher than the section to the right of it, higher even than the wall in front of it. Before the Dome stands a colonnade, and around it are little domed structures, — these are fountains and places for prayer. On the right-hand corner of the square you see again the Governor’s Palace, once the Tower of Antonia. Near the middle of the city the newly restored church of St. John is conspicuous, and back of it the tower of the Muristan. But after all we return to the Dome of the Rock and the platform around it. How much of sacred Position 16. Map 3. JERUSALEM FROM MOUNT OF OLIVES 00 history clusters around that rocky hill ! On that plateau, perhaps on the very rock under that dome, Abraham laid his son Isaac upon the altar, and held above him for one awful moment the glittering sac- rificial knife . 1 There, a thousand years later, was Araunah’s threshing floor, which David bought for an altar-place, consecrated for all time by the Tem- ple that rose in front of it . 2 Before that altar Solo- mon stood , 3 and Hezekiah prayed , 4 and Isaiah be- held his glorious vision . 5 Fifty years after the Temple fell under the fierce warriors of Nebuch- adnezzar, the returning exiles and surviving people of the land scraped away the dust and ashes from those rocks, and. began the second Temple , 6 less splendid than the first, but greater in glory, because within its walls appeared the Deliverer of Israel, the Redeemer of the world . 7 The view before us now was the view of Jerusalem when Jesus wept over it from this very mountain ; 8 but we look upon Jerusalem in her fall, and he looked upon her in her glory. In place of yonder octagonal building, in your thought rear the lofty fagade of Herod’s Tem- ple, with gilded roof. Above yonder wall in front of us, lift up Solomon’s Porch , 9 a goodly colonnade, open to the breezes, but sheltered from the sun ; open that closed Golden Gate, and let a stream of worshippers be seen ascending its marble staircase ; look at the cloud of smoke arising from the altar, touched with silvery incense — then you may have some conception of the view that rose before the 1 Genesis xxii:i-i2. 8 Ezra iii:i-3. 2 II Sam. xxiv:i5-25. 7 Haggai ii:g. 8 II Chron. vi:i2, 13. 8 Luke xix:4i. 4 II Kings xix:i-i5. *John x:23; Acts v:i 2. 1 Isa. vin-7. 'osition 1G. Map 3. 56 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND eyes of Christ and his apostles, as they viewed the same hill upon which we are looking. We will descend the Mount of Olives a little more than half-way, and from one of the terraces just above the Garden of Gethsemane take our next view. Map 3 marks the spot 17. Position 17. Gethsemane road to St. Stephen’s Gate, thronged with pilgrims ; west from Olivet to Jerusalem We are looking across the valley of the Kedron toward the eastern wall of the city, just north of the Haram enclosure, or old Temple area. You can see a long sweep of the eastern wall, with its towers here and there. There is every reason to believe that the wall before us stands upon the foundation and follows the line of the wall that was on this side of the city in the time of Christ. This view of the valley and the city must have been seen often by our Lord. You note that in one place the descent into the valley is very steep, forming a precipice, and on that height rises a little knoll. On the knoll there is a narrow gate, scarcely to be seen at our present distance. It is called St. Stephen’s Gate, from a tradition that there the first Christian martyr was dragged out of the city, thrown down the precipice, and then covered with stones. 1 Can you not imagine the scene as you look at that spot? And can you not almost see the young man Saul standing there, holding the garments of the men who are hurling stones down over that precipice? That gate is just north of the Temple enclosure, 1 Acts vii:54-6o. Positions 1G, 17. Map 3. JERUSALEM FROM MOUNT OF OLIVES 57 and through it a crowd hurrying away with such a purpose would pass. The gate has another name — Bab Sitti Mariam (St. Mary’s Gate), from a tradition that near it Mary, the Mother of our Lord, witnessed the death of Stephen. Look over the shoulder of this man in Oriental garb nearest us, and you see down in the valley a small square building. According to one tradition, that is the tomb of Mary; another report is that she was taken by St. John to Ephesus, and died there. We see just below us the roof of a house occupied by a Russian resident — the same house which we saw before from Position 13. Just beyond the row of cypress trees in front of that house are two taller trees ; those stand in the Gar- den of Gethsemane. Look at that procession of pilgrims who have come out of the city through St. Stephen’s Gate! It would not require much imag- ination to see in them the great multitude that (ac- cording to John’s gospel) went forth out of the city waving palm branches, to meet Jesus on his tri- umphal entry. 1 For Position 18, main tour, see puge 59. *We will descend the mountain, cross the valley, and, near St. Stephen’s Gate, look at another crowd of pilgrims and at the gate itself. Position 17a. St. Stephen’s Gate, eastern doorway of Jerusalem, from without Now that we look closely at this marching multitude we perceive that it consists, not of Christians, but of Mo- hammedans. They carry the Turkish flag, and they wear the fez cap or the turban. They are going to Neby Musa, a place about eight miles southeast of Jerusalem. The 1 John xii: 12-14. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 17, 17a. Map 3. 5 » TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND name means “mountain of Moses.” Mohammedans believe that the great legislator and prophet lies buried there, not- withstanding the Scripture statement that he was buried in the land of Moab, and that “no man knoweth of his se- pulcher.” 1 Every year, at our Easter time, a great pil- grimage is made from Jerusalem to that place, drawing thousands of Mussulmans to this vicinity; some say the custom was planned as a counterpoise to that of Christian pilgrims who come at Easter time to visit holy places in and around the city. Even though a non-Christian pro- cession, it may remind us of the multitudes who went forth on Palm Sunday from the city, perhaps from that gate, or from the Golden Gate beyond our view on the left, to meet Jesus. We can look through the gate, narrow as it is, and see the street inside the city wall. Ancient gates were pur- posely made narrow; the first requisite in planning a city’s wall and gates was not convenience, but defense against enemies. Small as it is, this is the only entrance to the city through its eastern wall. Had you noticed on the left, shaded by a canopy, the tables where cooked food is for sale? Such stands are to be found beside every thoroughfare. Many people rarely make a fire in their homes, but depend upon shops like these for table supplies. And they generally buy at one time only enough, even of the commonest food, for one day. You remember the Saviour’s illustration of a man coming to his neighbor’s house at night for food to set before a guest who has come unexpectedly . 2 We will pass through that gate and enter the city. Find on the map of Jerusalem (Map 4), the Haram enclosure, which we have already learned covers the site of Solomon’s Temple. At its north- western corner notice the Pasha’s residence, which occupies the spot where once the Tower of Antonia stood, just north of the Temple. From that point (marked with a red 18) we shall look at the finest ancient building in the city — for that matter, the only fine ancient building in the land. 1 Deut. xxxiv:s, 6. 2 Luke xi:s*8. Positions 17a, 18. Map 3. DOME OF THE ROCK 59 Position 1 8 . The Dome of the Rock, site of Solo- mon’s Temple We are facing southeast. Think for a moment where we are, and on what we are looking! That mass of rock at our feet is the native rock of Mount Moriah, just as David saw it when he walked over this hill from Mount Zion in order to build his altar. 1 That octagonal building yonder is the Dome of the Rock, which covers the site of Solomon’s sacrificial altar. 2 You notice that it is of two colors, light and dark. That is because the upper part is covered with porcelain tiles, and the lower part with marble. It stands, you see, on an elevated plat- form ; you can almost count the marble steps lead- ing to it. If we should walk up those steps, we would find that all that upper platform is “holy ground,” and that we must take off our shoes, or put slippers over them. Those colonnades are on the west side of the enclosure, and mark the princi- pal entrance from the city. What are the little domed square buildings all around? Some of them are shrines or places for prayer; perhaps we might call them chapels ; others are schools, and some are unoccupied. That smaller open building on the left of the Dome, and quite similar to it, is called the Judgment Seat of David. The Moslems say that it was built as a model for the larger building, and by the same architect. Do you notice beyond the Dome of the Rock an- other large, long building, with a dome over its further end? That is the Mosque el-Aksa, a true mosque, since it has a minaret, a prayer-niche or 1 II Sam. xxiv:i8-25; II Chron. iii-i. ’II Chron. vi:i2. Position IS. Map 3. 6o TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND recess in the wall looking toward Mecca, and a pul- pit. It stands at the southern side of the Temple enclosure, overlooking the Valley of the Kedron. It was erected by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century A.D., and was transformed into a mosque by the Saracens, after their conquest of the city. You can see a section of the eastern wall, in the distance on the left, and beyond it the rocky surface of the Mount of Olives. This plateau before us has been built over so many times and in such varied architecture that it needs a strong imagination to bring back its actual appearance at the different epochs of Bible history. In David’s time it was outside the city, but late in his reign he chose it for the site of the Temple that liis son should rear. How magnificent it must have t/een in Solomon’s day, surrounded by corridors and towers, and with the front of the temple where now the octagonal building stands! Do you not see King Hezekiah walking across that platform, 1 bear- ing in his hands the insulting message of the Assyr- ian emperor, to lay it before the Lord, yonder at the altar, where we see the great dome? Isaiah stands there, with the vision of the Lord of Hosts still illumining his face; 2 Jeremiah, mournful yet cour- ageous, delivers his message of woe on that plat- form. 3 Look at Nebuchadnezzar’s army pouring through the broken wall, while the Temple roof rises in flame, and its wall sinks in ashes! And six hundred years later, in the courts of a new Temple, see that Child of twelve years standing while a cir- cle of Scribes around are wondering at his knowl- edge of the law, and his mother is pressing her way 1 II Kings xix:i4. a Isaiah vi:i. 3 Jeremiah xxviri. 2. I’u.wition 18. Map 3. DOME OF TIIE ROCK Cl through the throng to lead him away ! 1 See that Child grown now to manhood, with a whip of small cords, driving out profaners of the Father's House ! 2 Listen as he faces the frowning nobles and priests, with answers sharper than sword-thrusts ; look at him as in tender words he teaches the people, and with gentle touch heals the blind and the lame ! 3 Look at Peter and John crossing the pavement, and pausing yonder before a helpless cripple, to whom they give something more precious than silver and gold! 4 Can you see Paul of Tarsus kneeling in prayer yonder, all undisturbed by the muttering and scowling of the mob ready to rush upon him with murderous purpose? 5 But up in the tower the Roman soldiers are ready to rescue that apostle from the violence of his countrymen, and lodge him in the castle as a prisoner. Such are the events that succeed each other as in a dissolving view through two thousand years, from Abraham to Paul, in the history of this storied spot. We will walk across the rocky plateau, ascend those steps, and enter the door of yonder octagonal building. Within and directly beneath the dome is the actual rock which has played a considerable part in the history of this land from the earliest times. Possibly Abraham looked upon it. We shall see it also. Position 19. The Sacred Rock, where the Temple Altar stood, Mount Moriah Moriah signifies “provided by Jehovah," and is supposed to be where Abraham offered Isaac.® 4 Acts 6 Acts xxi 126-36. •Gen. xxii:2. 1 Luke ii 14.6. 2 John ii : 1 3- 1 6. s Matt, xxi: 14. Positions 18, 19. Map 3. 6 2 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Look at that rough, massive, native rock! You are on its southern side, facing toward the north. On the left or western side; the Rock has been roughly hewn into a platform ; and there are several artificial channels and indentations running across its sur- face, but as a whole, it remains almost as it was when David stood upon it, and Solomon knelt be- fore his altar there . 1 In size, the naked portion is fifty-seven feet long (from north to south), forty- three feet wide, and rises six and a half feet above the floor of the building. That high railing of iron which surrounds the Rock was erected by the Cru- saders in the middle ages. You see that there are two rows of columns, with arches above them. They form double corridors, one inside the other, around the interior of the building. Had you ob- served that the two columns of the outer circle do not match? One has a wider block above its cap- ital than the other. All the sixteen columns in this building were taken from ancient temples, and are of different size and color, but brought to the same height of twenty feet by blocks placed upon them. At each of the eight corners in the exterior corridor stands a massive stone pier, and one at each of the four corners of the interior corridor. You can see one of the exterior piers, and one of the interior, on the left. They are covered with finely designed tiling. Observe those little arched windows. Their panes are of plaster with innumerable colored glass plates through which only an exceedingly dim re- ligious light can enter. On the north side — most distant from where we are standing — a part of the rock has been cut away, probably for the ascent 1 II Chron. vi:i3. Position 19. Map 3. MT. MORIAH, JERUSALEM 63 leading up to the altar : for on this rock from the days of Solomon to those of Titus, 70 A.D., the daily sacrifice was offered. Under the rock is a cave which can be entered by a staircase under that projection on the right. Probably that cave was a cesspool under the altar, having connection by a sewer with the brook Kedron ; but its original pur- pose has been crowded out of thought by fantastic legends that Moslems have told about it. We forego the fancies, and recall facts enough to make this one of the most impressive places on the earth. On this very spot was David’s altar, when the angel stood with drawn sword over Jerusalem; 1 and here stood Solomon’s altar, for four hundred years. Then for many years the sacrifices ceased, and the rock was heaped with ashes, until the Jews built upon it a new altar for the second Temple. 2 Before that altar stood Haggai, Zechariah, Nehe- miah, heroes and prophets of the latest Old Testa- ment history. Then, after centuries of struggle, came the heroes of the New Testament, the Master and the twelve disciples, looking at the sacrifices upon this same rock and seeing in them new mean- ings. On that day in A.D. 70, when the soldiers of Titus broke into the Temple, they came here and slew the high priest offering the sacrifice, where for a thousand years his predecessors had offered it before, and then altar and temple and sacrifice were swept away, never to be restored. For Position 20, main tour, see page 00. * You noticed that before the Dome of the Rock on each side rises a colonnade. Let us stand just behind the col- * For Supplementary Tour only. 1 I Chron. xxi: 16-27. 2 Ezra vi:3*i2. Positions 10, 19n. Map 3. 64 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND onnade on the southern side and look toward the Mosque el-Aksa. Position 19 a. Beautiful Mosque el-Aksa, south from the Temple area You notice that the mosque before us stands upon a platform several feet lower than the level of the Dome of the Rock, and that old cypress trees are growing before it. You see also the dome of the mosque, which rises over its southern end, not its front. According to Mohammedan tradition, there are four requisites for a true mosque: a minaret, from which the faithful are called to worship; a fountain where they wash before their prayers; a mihrab, or recess in the wall in the direction of Mecca ; and a mimbar, or pulpit. All of these are to be found within el-Aksa, although none of them are in sight at this moment. This building was once a Christian church, built by the Creek emperor Justinian, in the sixth century after Christ, but was taken by the Saracens under the Caliph Omar, A. D. 636, and turned into a mosque. The build- ing rests on subterranean vaults and arches, for the origi- nal surface of Mount Moriah is far below the floor. El- Aksa means “the most remote”; the name points back to a time when this was the mosque farthest from Mecca. To-day it is the most sacred place in all the world to Mo- hammedans, excepting the shrine at Mecca, and pilgrims who journey hither receive the same title — Hadji — as pilgrims to Mecca. * We will enter the arched door yonder, first taking off our shoes, or covering them with large slippers. We find within a long hall, whose vaulted roof is supported upon four rows of pillars. Near the southern end, in the direc- tion toward Mecca, we take our next position. Position 19 b. The Pulpit of Omar — Mosque el-Aksa Do you see under the window an arch of dark marble, and beneath it a semi-circular recess? That is the mihrab, or sacred recess, which shows the direction of Mecca, where Mohammed was born. Toward that place all wor- shippers turn in their prayers, even as Daniel in Babylon prayed with his window open toward Jerusalem; 1 and, as 1 Daniel vi:io. * For Supplementary Tour only. roKitionM 19n, 19b. Map 3. MOSQUE EL-AKSA, JERUSALEM 65 the “ark” in every Jewish synagogue throughout Europe and America is in the eastern end, so that the worship- pers face toward it. That steep, narrow staircase, just to the right of the recess, is the “mimbar,” or pulpit, upon which a Mohammedan preacher stands every Friday to address the people. He must never read his sermons; he must never employ any oratorical devices, or gestures, but must speak in a monotonous tone, not calling atten- tion from his message to himself. You see the prayer rugs spread upon the floor. Each worshipper removes his sandals as he enters the mosque. Just outside the range of our view on the right stand two pillars, so close together that only a very thin person could squeeze between them. The Mohammedans have long had a tradition that whoever could pass between those pillars would be sure of admission to heaven. The inner side of each pillar was worn smooth and shining by people going through the straight and narrow way. But so many people were squeezed to death in the effort, that the Pasha ordered an iron grating to be placed around the two pillars; and now pious Mussulmans cannot learn their future destiny through that path. * We will now go outside the Mosque el-Aksa, and, standing in front of it, look east across the valley of the Kedron. Map 3 marks our position 19c, and the extent of the V-lines bounding our outlook shows that we are to see Olivet’s slope in the distance. Position 19c. Old Temple grounds, with Olivet and the Bethany road at the east Standing now before the mosque, you notice its main portal through which we have just come, with three arches beyond it, and three more on this side of it, of which we can see two. If we were standing on the other side of that cluster of old trees we could look down into the val- ley of the Kedron, and see some of the same tombs that we observed from Position 12. From our present level we can only see the upper slopes and summit of the Mount of Olives. Two of its ancient, well-worn paths are in sight. The one on the right crosses the mountain in a slight depression just north of the Mount of Offense (which we cannot see), on which stood Solomon’s idol- temple. The other ascends the mountain more directly, *For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 19b, 19c. Map 3. 66 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND and is the steeper but more direct road to Bethany, about two miles beyond the Temple wall, on the east, the direction in which we are now looking. Again we see on the summit the tall tower, built by the Russians, com- manding a view in every direction, and itself a landmark seen from afar. Near it you note another tow r er, not so high, that stands beside a church commemorating the ascension of Christ, which tradition says took place at that point. Can you not in imagination almost see the risen Christ and his disciples, walking up that hill, and, near the tower, pausing for his last utterances on earth, then slowly rising until a cloud receives him! And that other path on the right — after those weary days of controversy in the Temple — the Monday and Tuesday of Passion Week, that would be the easier road to follow for his evening rest at the safe home in Bethany. How every view that we take on these holy hills brings its memory of the world’s Redeemer! Standing at a higher point, on the roof of el- Aksa, let us turn our faces northward for another view of the Dome of the Rock. Map 3 marks with a 20 that new outlook. Position 20. Pilgrims in the Temple area; north from el-Aksa to the Dome of the Rock Look at that multitude of men in flowing Oriental garments walking up the hill and ascending the steps toward the Dome of the Rock! Notice that many of them are wearing turbans, once the uni- versal head-covering of Mohammedans, until the Sultan Mehemet, early in the nineteenth century, introduced the more convenient fez-caps. This is a Mohammedan festival ; but it may illustrate many events in Bible history. When, a little less than a thousand years before Christ, on yonder plateau arose the walls and pinnacles of Solomon’s newly built Temple, a throng like this in similar garments walked up those steps, with songs and trumpets and Positions 19c, 20. 31 up 3. THE TEMPLE AREA, JERUSALEM 67 harps, King Solomon, in royal robes and crown, leading the procession. When, two centuries after Solomon, King Hezekiah held a great passover, and people came from all parts of the land, there was a congregation like this before us. Ezra’s great Bible class, about 400 B.C., was not held here, but prob- ably in an open place outside the Temple court; yet this scene may remind us of it. You recall the Feast of the Tabernacles, six months before the Saviour’s passion, when, on the last great day of the feast, in presence of the multitude, Jesus cried, Whosoever thirsts, let him come unto me and drink! That Voice sounded out over this very area, and before just such a throng as this. A pretty story is told about the dedication of this Moslem Dome of the Rock in the tenth century after Christ. It is said that the sultan who erected the present dome sent for a vast amount of that most precious and powerful perfume, the attar of roses, and for weeks and months drenched the in- terior of the building with it. When first opened for worship, the people who entered it could scarcely endure the intense fragrance: and for years afterward, when a worshiper walked in the streets after a visit to the dome, people would turn and say, ‘‘Ah, you have been to the Holy Mount!” For Position 21, mn in tour, nee puKe 74. * We can better understand allusions to the Temple, in various parts of the Bible, if we look at one of the most famous models of the building, even though many of the details are necessarily but conjectural. Position 20a. Solomon’s Temple — the famous Schick Model We are looking at a model of the Temple and its * For Supplementary Tour only. PoNitiuns 20, 20a. Map 3* 68 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND buildings, as they stood when completed by Solomon: according to the plan of Dr. Schick, a famous architect and Biblical archaeologist, and for more than forty years a resident of Jerusalem. We are looking from the south- west. (The word “sud,” on the base of the model, is German for “south.”) At the foot of the building di- rectly before us is the slope of Ophel, on the east the valley of the Kedron, on the west the Tyropoeon Val- ley, and on the north the district known as Bezetha. Let us begin at the lower left-hand corner. Here are the lofty foundations and buildings of “the house Millo,” which was probably a castle for defense, containing with- in its bastions a palace . 1 To the east of Millo (right) we see two streets, with residences leading up to the Temple area, surmounted by a double gate on the left and a triple gate on the right. Above this you note on the left, or west, a bridge of four arches: that is the bridge across the Tyropoeon Valley, leading to the city from the group of buildings comprising Solomon’s palace. The bridge leads directly to the House of the Forest of Leb- anon , 2 perhaps named from its many pillars, which may have been of cedar. East of this, beyond the double gate, is the Judgment Hall, in which stood (under the dome) the King’s throne . 3 Still further to the right, be- yond the triple gate, is the King’s private home . 4 On a higher level stand the buildings and courts of the Temple. You note the two “ascents” leading up to an outer court, which may very likely have been called (as was its successor in the later Temple), the Court of the Gentiles. Notice that within this court is a higher plat- form — the Chel, or Sacred Enclosure. On the Chel stands a series of buildings along three sides, divided by a parti- tion north and south into two parts; the part on the right, called the Middle Court , 5 that on the left the Inner Court, Within the Inner Court is another raised platform, the Court of the Priests. You can just see the top of its brazen altar, the altar of burnt offerings ; 8 and beyond that you get a glimpse of the Brazen Sea, a tank of water standing upon twelve brazen oxen/ The tall building within that left-hand court is the Tem- ple proper. Perhaps you can see in front of it the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, standing very close to the wall . 8 1 II Sam. v:g. 2 I Kings vii:i- 6 . 3 I Kings vii:7. 4 I Kings vii:8. 6 TT Chron. vii:7. 6 II Chron. iv:i. 7 IT Chron. iv:2-5. 8 I Kings vii: 15-22. Position 20a. Solomon’s temtle, Jerusalem 69 The front of the edifice, with its three pointed towers, was called the Porch, and contained rooms for the higher officials. Through a hall the priests (and only the priests) went into a room beyond — the Holy Place, sixty feet long and thirty feet wide, in which stood, on the right side, the table for the show-bread, and at the further end the golden Altar of Incense. According to the account, that room was lighted by upright lamps, 1 but no mention is made of the golden candlestick (more properly lamp- stand) with seven branches, which stood in the corre- sponding room of the Tabernacle. The innermost room was separated from the Holy Place by a wall of wood pierced by one door. That innermost room, the Holy of Holies, thirty feet long and of the same width and height,* was entered by the high priest alone, on only one day in the year, the Day of Atonement. Its only ar- ticle of furniture was the chest called the Ark of the Covenant, containing the tablets of the Ten Command- ments. Around the Temple building on three sides were rooms in three stories, occupied by priests during the two weeks of their service in the public worship each year. North of the Temple was a fortress with two towers, named Meah and Hananeel. 8 This Temple was dedicated about 960 B. C., and was de- stroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, 587 B. C. * The Temple which occupied the same site nineteen hundred years ago differed from the first structure in certain respects. Let us give a little time to that model, also: for, though perfect accuracy cannot be claimed for it, the concreteness of such a model certainly does aid one’s imagination. Position 20b. Herod’s Temple — reproduction of the famous Schick model at Jerusalem The buildings at which we are now looking were the third in the series of temples: Solomon’s was the first, Zerubbabel’s the second (built soon after the return from captivity, in 536 B. C.), and Herod’s, the third Temple, begun about 16 B. C. The second Temple fell into a ruin- ous condition, and Herod the Great began the rebuilding 1 II Chron. 17:7. 8 Nehemiah iii : x. 8 II Chron. iii:8. * For Supplementary Tour only. I’oNitionN 20a, 20b. 7o TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND of it — not by first tearing down the old structure, but re- placing it part by part, a slow process, so that it was not finished until long after Herod died . 1 The general plan was the same as that of Solomon’s, but we notice a few changes. On the southwest the old castle and palace of Millo gave place to a hippodrome, which greatly offended the stricter Jews. The three buildings of Solomon’s palace were replaced by a long porch on the south of the Temple, called Herod’s Porch, while another open colonnade on the east was called Solomon’s Porch. Tradition said that the lat- ter portion remained standing from the oldest Temple. You will remember in the eastern porch Jesus walked with his disciples ; 2 and later Peter preached beneath its roof.“ We see again the court of the Gentiles, and we remem- ber that in Christ’s time it had become a market-place. Twice was it purged of its desecrators during Christ’s ministry . 4 Again you note the raised platform of the Chel, or Sacred Enclosure, into which no Gentile might enter upon penalty of death; you recall that it was under the false charge of having brought Greeks into that part of the Temple, that Paul was attacked by the Jews . 5 You perceive the buildings surrounding the Temple, dividing the open space into two courts. The one on the east was called the Women’s Court, because women sat in its gallery to view the services of worship; it was also called the Treasury, because of the gift-boxes around its walls . 6 This was doubtless the place where Joseph and Mary found Jesus, when he was twelve years old, listen- ing to the doctors of the law . 7 The Saviour gave here his last teachings on the days before his sufferings . 8 The eastern door of entrance to this court was doubtless the Beautiful Gate, where Peter and John healed a cripple who sat begging beside it . 9 Do you notice on the south (nearer side) of the wall a projection, near the middle, with a double door of entrance? That was the Hall Ga- zith, where the Jewish council, or Sanhedrin, met. To that room Paul was brought for trial when the high priest said, “Smite him on the mouth !” 10 The Temple building and the court of the priests be- fore it followed the plan of the earlier days, except that in the Holy Place stood the seven-branched candlestick 1 John ii:2o. 6 Luke xxin-3. 2 John x:23. 3 Actsiii:n and v:i 2. 4 John ii:i4-i6; Matt. xxi:i2. 5 Acts XXL27-34. 7 Luke ii 146. 8 Mark xii :4i. 8 Acts iii : 1- 1 o. 10 Acts xxiii:2. Position 20b. herod’s temple, Jerusalem 7i (of which a sculptured representation may be seen on the Arch of Titus, at Rome): and also that, between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, the only partition was a great veil hanging from ceiling to floor — the veil that was torn asunder, according to the record in Matthew xxvii:5i, at the moment when Jesus died on the Cross. In the Holy of Holies there was no Ark of the Cove- nant, the original ark having been lost at the time of the captivity. Its place was occupied by a block of marble, where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. Do you notice the high building above the Temple on the northwest corner? That is the Tower of Antonia, held by the Romans as a guard to the Temple. On the site of that building tradition holds that Jesus stood on trial before Pontius Pilate, and from it he went forth on the sorrowful road to Calvary, bearing his cross. 1 From a staircase between that building and the Temple, Paul made an address to the Jews on the day of his own ar- rest. 1 This Temple stood not more than ten years after its final completion, for, in 70 A. D., Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Roman conqueror, Titus, afterwards Em- peror. * Now let us come back from the study of a model to the seeing of a real place as it is to-day. Consult Map 3, and find where our next position, in the southwestern part of the Temple grounds, is marked 20c. The green lines diverging from that point show that we are to look across the partly filled depression of the Tyropoeon Valley to the city’s southwest hill. Position 20c. From the Temple area southwest over modern Jewish quarter of Jerusalem We are on the elevated platform, just in front of the southern door to the Dome of the Rock. You can see the descending wall of a staircase leading down to the lower level. On our left, but outside the range of our view is the Mosque el-Aksa. Just before us rises a graceful colonnade of four arches. There are four such 1 Matt. xxvii:3i. * For Supplementary Tour only. * Acts xxi:37*4o. PoHitionH 20b. 20c. Map 3. 72 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND colonnades, one on each side of the platform. They are called in Arabic Mawazin, “the scales,” because on the day of Judgment the scales for the weighing of character will be suspended here! That elevated octagonal struc- ture of marble on our right is the pulpit (called the “sum- mer pulpit”) of the Kadi Borhannaddin, from the name of its builder. It dates from the fifteenth century, and is a fine example of genuine Arabian architecture. Notice that graceful horseshoe arch under the pulpit. During the fast of the month Ramadan, in the spring, out-of-door sermons are preached from this pulpit. Look at that stately officer on duty just before us. His scimitar hangs by his side, and, if it were drawn, you would see that it is a fine blade. Notice a few old olive trees upon the lower level of the Temple area. You perceive a gate leading out of the enclosure into the city. The part of the city upon which we are looking is the southwestern section, occupied almost wholly by Jews. They dwell as near as possible to the site of their ancient Temple, but for cen- turies have not been permitted to enter its precincts. Un- til the recent revolution in Turkey, for a Jew to be seen in the Kubbet-es-Sakra, or Temple enclosure, was to in- cur the penalty of death. Now the rules are less rigid, but it is still scarcely safe for a Jew to enter the open square on which stand the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque el-Aksa. You notice that every house over there on the hill has its little dome. Those homes are crowded with dwellers — too close for health or for decency — and with nine or ten people sleeping in a room every window is kept closed; all air from without is excluded. The peo- ple living here in narrow alleys and unwholesome houses are pale and miserable in appearance; water is a luxury used only in the smallest quantity; baths are utterly un- known: and it is a wonder that the city is not visited by pestilence. Its height, the bright sunlight and the strong, winds sweeping over it are its salvation from disease. Those larger domes in the distance belong to syna- gogues. Every nationality of Jews has its own meeting- place, just as was the case in Jerusalem in the New Tes- tament times . 1 Probably those domed houses before us are not unlike the homes built by the native Jews and returning exiles after the captivity . 2 Jesus, looking out from this very 1 Acts vi:9. 2 Nehemiah i : i -3. Position 20e. Map 3. THE TEMPLE AREA, JERUSALEM 73 platform, may have seen a section of the city somewhat similar to that before us now. * Let us find the southeastern corner of the old Temple wall, one side (east) looking over the Kedron Valley, the other (south) over the descent of Ophel. Inside that wall is a series of steps which would take us down to a remarkable basement, or substructure, where we find our next position. Position 2od. Solomon’s Stables under the Temple plat- form We are now underground, near the southeastern cor- ner of the Temple enclosure. Look at these massive arches! There are thirteen of these great vaults, standing parallel, and covering an area of 273 feet from east to west, and 198 feet from south to north. These were, in all probability, built by Arabian architects in the middle ages, but there are strong reasons for believing that they are the successors of earlier structures by Solomon or Herod. When the Temple was planned, the mountain summit of Moriah was not large enough for its buildings and courts; so they built out the platform of the larger court, and supported its floor upon these great arches. Formerly there were gates opening into these corridors from the side of Ophel on the south; the vaults may have been used as stables; they certainly were in the crusading ages, for in some places are still found the rings to which horses were tied. Do you notice that around the stones of the lower courses there is a smooth band or drafting? That is characteristic of very ancient work, and is found on a few rows in the earliest founda- tions of the Temple. It may indicate that the foundations of these arches were laid by the Tyrian builders of Solo- mon’s Temple. Some, however, think that here they are later, and only imitations of the earlier work. These un- derground buildings have never been thoroughly investi- gated, on account of the opposition of the Turkish author- ities, but they probably extend under the Mosque el-Aksa, and along the southern side of Mount Moriah. Look again at Map 3 and you will find Position 21 marked under the southwestern wall of the * For Supplementary Tour only. PoNltion* 20c, 20(1, 21. Map 3. 74 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Haram Enclosure west of a point midway between the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque el-Aksa. There we shall meet descendants of the old-time masters of this land, now shut out from the ground of their historic place of worship. Position 21. The Jews’ wailing-place, the outer wall of Solomon’s Temple Look first of all at the great stones which stand in rows to form the western wall of the ancient Temple enclosure. Do you notice on the upper row that most of the blocks have a narrow bevel, or smooth border? You can trace a few signs of the same beveled edge on the second row from the top, and even on some of the stones still lower, but scarcely any of it is seen on the lowest tiers. That beveled border is the sign of the very earliest Jew- ish masonry. It may have worn off the lowest tier, or those may have been rough stones in the founda- tion. We are looking, then, on the wall where it was laid by the Phoenician builders of the first Tem- ple, in the days of Solomon. Not many localities in Jerusalem or in all the land can show workman- ship as ancient as that of this wall. The old Tem- ple enclosure was about a thousand feet square, and we know it was divided into various courts, which stood one inside another, all open to the sky, the in- nermost court of the priests surrounding the Holy House itself. This wall upon which we now look was the exterior wall of the Gentiles’ court, on the western side near the southwestern corner. See these groups of Hebrews standing up close to the wall, some of them pressing their faces against the stones. This is as near as Jews are Position 21. Map 3. JEWS’ WAILINGr PLACE 75 usually permitted to approach the precincts of that hill toward which every Israelite in the world turns when he worships, and even for the poor privilege of praying and weeping here they were compelled, until recently, to pay a heavy price to their Moslem masters. On certain days, especially on Fridays and fast days, Jews enter this court and engage in a solemn service of wailing over the destruction of their Temple and the sufferings of their race. Rich and poor, men and women, old and young, meet here together, and read in Hebrew the litany of their sorrow. There is more real sadness in the hearts of these people who come here than we can easily imagine. It is indeed touching to think of their coming here again and again, leaning against this old weather-beaten wall, kissing the stone, agonizing, lamenting and praying. Men and women stay here for hours reading their worn Hebrew prayer-books. The women, you see, wear shawls on their heads, instead of bonnets, and the men are covered by their own peculiar headdress, or fur cap. Most of the Jews dwelling in this city are miserably poor, for there are few sources of revenue in the city ; and they are largely dependent for support upon the Kaluka, or contribution of pious Jews throughout the world. The Jewish population would be larger but for the strenuous efforts of the Turkish government to keep the Jews from settling in the land ; and even those efforts are not altogether successful, for the number of Jews is constantly and rapidly increasing. If Palestine were free from the Turkish rule, the land would speedily be filled with Jews. Position 21. Map 3. j6 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND When we looked across the city from the Damas- cus gate (Position 8) we saw the domes of two Jew- ish synagogues in the southwestern quarter. Again (Supplementary Series, Position 20c) we saw the larger of the domes from the Temple grounds. Now we will enter that larger synagogue and see for ourselves its interior plan and furnishing. The place is marked 22 on our regular Jerusalem map (Map 3). Position 22. Inside a Jewish Synagogue, showing Holy Place and Reader’s Platform We are undoubtedly looking toward the east or northeast, since that monument on the wall must stand on the side toward the Temple; throughout the world every Jew, as he prays in a synagogue, stands with his face toward the spot where stood of old the sanctuary of his fathers. 1 They pray standing, 2 for they are God’s children, and entitled to stand in his presence, not idolaters who prostrate themselves before images. We are looking at the platform which rises several steps above the floor- level. The floor is of stone, almost the universal flooring of churches, mosques, and synagogues in the east. You observe a curtain hanging over the Holy Place beyond it. If that curtain were lifted you would see the Ark, a box or chest containing sacred rolls of the Old Testament, each book (ex- cept the smaller ones) on a separate roll. The offi- cer having charge of these rolls is called the Chaz- zan (or Hazzan, the first letter of his title being •.scarcely pronounced). This officer selects the books from which the readings are taken in regular order 1 Daniel vi: io. 2 Luke xviii:n-i 3 . Position 22. Map 3. JEWISH SYNAGOGUE 77 through the year, and places it on a reading desk, which you can see inside the octagonal balustrade. You remember in the account of Christ’s visit to the synagogue at Nazareth, after reading the pas- sage in Isaiah, he gave the book to “the attendant” (Revised Version ). 1 That was the Chazzan, who was at once sexton, clerk, constable, and teacher of a boys’ school held through the week in the syna- gogue. The only school text-books were sheets from the sacred rolls, which were given to the school after becoming too old for use in public worship. When entirely worn out, such sheets were buried, with a reverent form of burial service : so careful were the Jews after the captivity in their treatment of the Holy Book. You notice that the reader’s platform is poorly constructed and sadly in need of repair. That is characteristic of buildings in Oriental lands, whether Turkish or Jewish. All the fine buildings are old, and the modern builders are careless of architecture or of construction. Many of the buildings in Jeru- salem would tumble down if they were not sup- ported by each other. You see benches and chairs on which modern worshipers sit. In ancient times it was customary to sit on the floor, a position more comfortable in the loose flowing garments of the Orient than in our tighter garb. As you look at this empty synagogue, can you not fill it with a throng, and see Jesus standing at the reader’s desk with the open roll before him? Can you not see him in the synagogue at Caper- 1 Luke iv: 16-20. Position 22. Map 3. 78 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND naum, giving his sermon on the Bread of Life ? 1 And the synagogue plays an important part in the life of St. Paul. Everywhere he began his ministry in the synagogue , 2 for he met there not only re- ligious, worshiping Jews, but also devout Gentiles, for whom in each synagogue was a place set apart. In fact, Christianity owes far more to the synagogue than to the temple, for the synagogue supplied the church with a place of meeting, a congregation, a plan of service, and a form of organization. The early Church possessed ‘‘elders” like those of the synagogue . 3 For Position 23, main tour, see page 79. * There stands in Jerusalem one church which we are now to visit, not so much because of its traditional mem- ories, as because of its beautiful interior, and the tragic history of the sect that worships there. Follow down Damascus street, upon the map, to the Armenian quarter on Mount Zion, and find the Armenian Convent. Within this convent we shall find the church. The spot where we are to stand is marked 22a on Map 3. Position 22a. The Beautiful Church of the Armenian Christians Yes, this is beautiful, not with the beauty of classical lines and proportions in its architecture, but with that of rich and abundant decoration. Look at the carvings on the walls, and the crystal chandeliers, and silver lamps hanging from the ceiling! The Armenians, though op- pressed for centuries, are nevertheless the richest people in this city, as they are throughout the Turkish Empire, for they have almost a monopoly in many lines of trade, and they are shrewd in business. They show their liber- ality, as well as their taste, in the gifts which they bestow upon their church. The pointed black hood on the man in the long robe is the characteristic headgear of Ar- menian monks, and is often seen in this part of the city, where the Armenians number about six hundred souls. 1 John vi j59. 3 Acts xiv:23. 2 Acts xiii : 5- 1 5, xiv:i. * For Supplementary Tour only. PositionN 22, 22a. Map 3. THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 79 This church is dedicated to St. James, and tradition says that it stands on the spot where he was slain . 1 It brings to our thought, therefore, that early day in the history of Christianity,* when the Christian Church was exclusively Jewish, when Peter, James and John were its three rec- ognized leaders, when Solomon’s Porch in the Temple was its preaching place, and when the believers were wont to meet in an “upper room” on Mount Zion. That was the pentecostal Church, living in a brief golden age of peace, before the preaching of Stephen and the vision of Peter opened the door to the Gentiles; and before per- secution scattered the little company, and sent the gospel abroad to a wider field. As we think of those early days of the Christian Church, and read of what later believers had to suffer for the faith — the martyrdoms in Palestine, the slaughter of thousands in Rome — we are often in- clined to feel that no such cruel brutishness would be possible in men to-day. But the horrible butchery of thousands of modern Armenians reminds us of what human passion, urged on by religious fanaticism, is still capable of doing. Find on the main map of Jerusalem David Street, beginning at the Jaffa Gate and extending eastward to the middle of the city where it crosses Damascus Street. Beyond that point eastward it is known as Temple Street, leading directly to the Temple area. We will stand on David Street at the spot marked 23 and look at the passing throng. Position 23. Crowded Bazaar and thoroughfare of David Street, looking east to the Mount of Olives Look at the frowning walls on either side! That is the Oriental style, to have nothing attractive on the street-side of even the finest residences. That barred window projecting over the street is for the benefit of women, — who are kept closely indoors, — 1 Acts xiira. * Acts i to v. Position* 22n, 23. Map 3. 80 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND so that they may see what is going on in the street. One rarely meets women of the higher classes out of doors except in carriages, and a carriage rarely passes through this fifteen-foot passage! It is no uncommon thing to find a married woman who has never been outside the door of her own home, ex- cept for a walk and a breath on the roof. Notice how ragged and cheap are the awnings, — that is an- other mark of the careless East. Just before us is a tower extending over the street and darkening the roadway. You observe also that there is no regular grade; here and there one must step up or down at risk of accident, unless he watches his way. This street forms a “bazaar” or place of merchandise for all kinds of trade. See the cooked food on the stands. There are round loaves of bread on the right, and flat loaves on the left. Nobody seems afraid of microbes in this air, and yet there must be an abundance of them. You see that those who are carrying loads bear them on their heads — the uni- versal method in the east. Notice the different styles of woman’s dress. Yet, none of them are wholly Oriental, for Japhet’s wife has invaded the tents of Shem, and brought with her European clothes. If you would see the loose trousers worn by women you must go into the fields or the Mus- lim houses, and the latter plan would be next to an impossibility. The garments of women in Palestine often appear to be the cast-off clothes of Europeans. Looking through the street you perceive in the dis- tance a tower. That stands on the summit of the Mount of Olives. So in this view we are looking directly over the Temple area to the mount on the east of the city. Position 23. Map 3. DAVID STREET, JERUSALEM 8l How many recollections of Scripture street-scenes rise as we look on this crowded thoroughfare! For instance, we see why Jesus took his congregations out of Capernaum and elsewhere to the seaside and the mountains ; 1 for no street-meeting could be held in the crowded city. You remember the throngs that gathered to see Peter and John (perhaps in this very street, for they were daily going up to the Temple), when they laid the sick in the streets, that the shadow of Peter might fall upon them . 2 No wonder that the authorities complained when the throngs blocked up the narrow highway. For I’oMltlon 21, main tour, nee page 83. * While we are considering the street life in Jerusalem, let us return to the Jaffa Gate, on the west of the city, and glance at a group near it. Map 3 shows by the number 23a where we are to stand. Position 23a. A money-changer and his patrons, just inside the Jaffa Gate From Position 9 (Regular Series) we looked at the Jaffa Gate from the outside; we are now inside the Gate, just at the beginning of David Street. This is one of the widest and busiest streets in the city. Do you notice the depression in the middle? That is the nearest approach to a sewer Jerusalem possesses. The Jaffa Gate lies beyond that arch, of which you can see the beginning. A money- changer has set up his stand in the open doorway. He is probably an Armenian, for men of that race are bank- ers and money-changers all over the Turkish Empire. A wealthy Turk will generally have an Armenian for his cashier and business manager, for, though the Turks have shown themselves in the past brave in war, they are not successful in administration. Perhaps such tables as these were in the Gentiles’ court of the Temple, when Christ visited it;* and it would not be difficult to over- throw one of them. 1 Matt. v:i and 3 John 11:14-16. *Acts v:i2-i6. * For Supplementary Tour only. PoNltlons 23, 23a. Map 3. 82 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND The crowd looking on is made up mostly of boys, but a few girls have crept in among them. Do you remem- ber the prophecy of Zechariah, when the returned exiles were few, and poverty-stricken, and discouraged, that the streets of Jerusalem should again be full of boys and girls playing? 1 One walk through almost any part of the city — but most of all in the Jewish quarter — will prove that that prediction at least has been fulfilled. Do you recall a saying of the Master about two games played by children in the market-place? One was the game of a wedding, the other of a funeral, 2 and both of them Jesus himself had doubtless played many times in his child- hood. Those two women in white, standing in the back- ground, are Christians, for they are usually better dressed than Mohammedan women, and they wear no veils. *Just a little to the east of our last position, we will turn out of David Street, and find an ancient reservoir in the heart of the city. Map 3 indicates the outlook we shall have by means of the two long green lines spread- ing from the point 23b. Position 23b. Ancient Pool of Hezekiah, northeast to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre As you see, it is entirely surrounded by buildings. That structure on the other side of the Pool, with the closed balcony, is an Arabian cafe, fronting on Christian Street. The Pool is two hundred and forty feet long, from north to south, and more than half as wide. Its depth as a construction is from nineteen to twenty-four feet in different places. Its source of supply is the upper Pool of Gihon, on the northwest of the city. After the spring rains it is sometimes full, but in the summer it is apt to contain only a little muddy water. You remem- ber that the good King Hezekiah, about 720 B. C., brought water by an underground tunnel into Jerusalem. 8 Opin- ions differ as to whether or no this reservoir was built by Hezekiah, but the weight of authority is against it. The Pool must have been in existence in the New Testa- ment period, for it is mentioned by Josephus as Amyg- dalon — the Serpent’s Pool. At present it is of no service as a water supply, but, under a wise and liberal adminis- tration, the Pool might again be useful. 1 Zechariah viii.'S. 3 II Kings xx:ao. a Luke vii:32. * For Supplementary Tour only. Fositious 23a, 23b. Map 3. POOL OF 1IEZEKIAII 83 That group of buildings just beyond the Pool is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which we shall soon visit. You notice that the larger of its two domes has a modern appearance. In 1808 the old building suffered great in- jury by fire, and the dome fell. It stood in ruins for some years, but finally was reconstructed. You notice the square tower with the temporary roof. Beside that is the entrance to the church. Our chief Jerusalem map shows the whole length of David Street. If we consult it again for a mo- ment we find its western part, a short distance in from the Jaffa Gate, passes near the big old reser- voir called by Hezekiah’s name, and crosses the end of another thoroughfare known as Christian Street. We will turn into Christian Street and, pausing at the spot marked 24, stand facing toward the north. Position 24. Christian Street, Jerusalem. Motley life in the Holy City’s bazaar district Rather narrow, isn’t it, according to our notion of what a city street should be? But in our cities we must provide width for wagons and horses to pass each other, and, as we have said before, few wheeled vehicles enter the gates of Jerusalem. One sees donkeys and camels, but rarely carriages, in these streets. The pavement looks fairly even, and decently clean; in these respects this is by far the best street in the city. Most of the alleys and lanes of Jerusalem are in a condition of vileness indescrib- able. In the evening this place is as silent as a graveyard, few or no lamps, — all the shops shut and barred. One might meet some night watchmen, but they look like robbers. In Oriental cities no one goes abroad at night, except under absolute neces- sity. 1'oftltionM 23b, 24. Map 3. 84 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND You see this same street by daylight, and find it alive with people. These walls on either side are plain and gloomy, and the windows on the upper stories are iron-bound. Those upper stories are pri- vate homes. Everywhere in the city one finds arches like these swung across the streets ; and they are needed as props to the walls, for the foundations often rest on the ruins of earlier buildings. Those breaks tell of cracks that have opened in the walls. On the ground floors little shops front upon the street, and their wares often encroach upon the roadway. That key hung up in front, and the clock beyond it, tell the passers what are for sale. You might suppose that these shopkeepers would want all the light possible in such shaded streets ; but sunshine is never welcome to Orientals, and they hang curtains and awnings overhead. Glance at a few of the types of people in sight at this moment, the dress of the women, the flowing robes and abbas (overcoats) of the men. You can almost see their sandals flap as they walk, yet they never slip off the owners’ feet. Through a street not unlike this, Jesus was walk- ing one day when he saw the blind man begging . 1 It was certainly not very far from here that he mixed a little earth from the street, placed a patch of it on each eye of the blind man, and sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam, down in the Kedron Valley. Can you not imagine the blind man feeling his way through these same crowded, narrow streets, on his errand to the Pool? As we watch this Oriental crowd, we should be hardly surprised to see Paul of Tarsus, just arrived from Damascus, 1 John ixn-7. Position 24. 31 np 3. CHRISTIAN STREET, JERUSALEM 85 visiting the apostles James and Peter, and soon to start for Caesarea. 1 Do you notice that second arch yonder? Just be- yond that we shall turn to the right and find our- selves on a court beside an ancient building, where throngs of people are passing out and in. We shall not look up at its walls from the court, but will take our stand where we can obtain a good view, looking down from the roof of a Greek monastery opposite, that is, from the south. The position is marked 25 on Map 3. Position 25. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Take a good look at this mass of venerable build- ings opposite. Nearest to us is the bell-tower, un- finished since the great fire of 1808. Behind the tower we catch just a glimpse of the principal dome, but have a full view of the secondary or smaller dome. The Holy Sepulchre itself is directly under the larger dome. What are all these crowds of peo- ple doing here, filling every roof and ledge, and thronging the court below? It is Holy Week, and the Greek Patriarch is making a visit of state to the Holy Sepulchre. We shall meet him and his at- tendants shortly. You know what gives a world-wide interest to this old church — more than an interest ; the world feels deep reverence for it. Millions believe that on this spot was Mount Calvary of old, where the three crosses rose, and where the tomb of Jesus was hol- lowed out of the rock. They show the exact place where every event of that awful tragedy took place. They point out all the sites with such definiteness 1 Acts ix:26-3o; Galatians i:i8, 19. Positions 24, 25. Map 3. 86 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND and such confidence that the thoughtful visitor can scarcely avoid a feeling of distrust. The evidence in favor of this location is principally traditional, and scholars have exposed most of its pretensions a hundred times. Yet it was to rescue this ground from the rule of the Moslems that the Crusades were undertaken in the middle ages. Europe sent forth its noblest sons, and poured out rivers of blood to found a Christian state of which this church was to be the center. But it was all in vain ; the Cru- saders’ kingdom was swept away, and the Holy Sepulchre remains to this day in the grasp of the Ottoman Empire. If we were standing in that crowded doorway down there we should see on the left of the entrance a little recess where a detachment of Turkish sol- diers is always on guard. The principal business of the guard, however, is not to maintain Turkish con- trol, but to keep order among the hundred thousand pilgrims of varied Christian beliefs and from every Christian land, who, every year, visit this ancient church. You know, this is one of the only two buildings in the whole world where Roman Catho- lics, Greek Christians, Syrians, Copts and Armen- ians — all the great churches except the Protestants — worship under one roof. The other Union Church we shall find at Bethlehem, over the cave where Jesus was born. But in neither of the two churches is there Christian unity; each sect or division of Christianity has its own chapel, and the privileges of each are jealously guarded around the Holy Sep- ulchre itself, where they perform their several rites in turn and never together. For Position 26, nmiu tour, see page 88. Position 25. Map 3. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 87 * We enter the low-browed door to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and find that its floor is below that of the outer court. We pass a little room where the Moslem guard is stationed, and about forty feet from the en- trance-door we take our next position. Position 25a. The Stone of Anointment — Church of the Holy Sepulchre We can see that the center of interest, almost of adora- tion, is the flat stone, nearly nine feet long (reddish mar- ble), which lies before us. Around it are decorated can- delabra, and above it a row of lamps. If we could but be sure that this stone is really what it is claimed to be, we, too, would feel like joining that kneeling company of pilgrims. Tradition states that on that stone the body of Jesus was laid after it was taken down from the cross. Beside it stood Joseph of Arimathea, the rich noble, who, at the risk of his life, went to Pilate’s palace and asked for the privilege of burying the body of Him whom he believed to have been at least a prophet. 1 To this place came Nicodemus, 2 once afraid of popular opinion, and vis- iting Jesus for a memorable interview at night;* but af- terward, bold to show his loyalty and love, bringing a princely gift of a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, to be wrapped in linen folds around the precious body. A little to the right, just outside the limits of our vision, is another stone, on which ’tis said Mary Magdalene and the other women stood with streaming eyes, watching the preparations for the burial of their Lord. 4 As the picture of this scene rises before our mental vision, can we won- der at the ardent devotion of this group of worshipers? Pilgrims, rich and poor, come here from all quarters of the habitable globe. They kneel beneath the pendent lamps of gold and silver, kissing the marble, once touched — as they believe — by the body of their Lord. Now you may see a Russian peasant, sad-eyed, wrinkled, bent with many sorrows, lay his cheek silently on the stone, with a look on his face as if he were a child leaning against his mother’s breast; and now a little, barefoot boy, with big, serious eyes, kissing his hand and laying it on the stone where he finds that he cannot reach it with his lips; or some young nun, slender, pale, dark-eyed, with a noble * For Supplementary Tour only. 3 John iii:i*5. 1 Matthew xxvii:57; Mark xv:43. ‘Luke xxiii:ss. *John xix:39. Position 25n. Map 3. 88 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Italian face, shaken with sobs, the tears running down her cheeks, as she bends to touch her lips to the resting- place of the Friend of Sorrows. While we must admit that many scholars now believe that the true Calvary is elsewhere, yet we respect the faith of countless millions, who, for fifteen centuries, have here knelt and worshiped their risen Lord. Directly under the chief dome of the church we find its central shrine. Position 26. The Holy Sepulchre Right in the center of a great circular room, sixty- eight feet in diameter, rises before us a highly dec- orated but rather tawdry edifice of marble. You notice in front of it some gigantic candlesticks and almost innumerable lamps — the gifts of worshipers. Lamps hang everywhere around the rotunda. There is a row of them almost over our heads in front of us. Those little balconies above are for the favored few on Christmas and Easter, when the whole build- ing is thronged by a disorderly and rather danger- ous multitude of worshipers. Now look closely into the open portal to the shrine. Perhaps you can see that it has two rooms, the outer one, where a mar- ble altar stands, and an inner room beyond with a dark entrance. The outer room is the Chapel of the Angel, and yonder altar is supposed to mark the spot where on the morning of the Saviour’s resur- rection the angel stood outside the tomb and said to the amazed women, “He is not here: He is risen, as He said .” 1 Back of the altar you see another arched portal. That leads to the interior of the tomb itself ; and there on the right is a recess cut in the rock, where the worshipers at this shrine be- 1 Matt. xxviii: 2 - 6 . Positions 25a, 26. Map 3. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 89 lieve that the body of Jesus lay entombed for three days. 1 If one could only believe all these statements with unquestioning’ faith how real the events would be- come! Did the angel stand in that spot? Was the Saviour buried in that inner chamber? We must admit that very few competent scholars accept these traditional localities, and that there is a growing tendency to find the true Calvary elsewhere, as we shall see in our journey around the city. But we must respect the reverent faith of the countless mil- lions who for fifteen centuries have here knelt and worshiped. We leave the church building by the low-arched door near the Stone of Anointment, and are just in time to see a certain famous procession. Position 27. Easter procession of the Greek Patri- arch, entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre There walks the Patriarch at the rear of the pro- cession of dignitaries. You can distinguish him by his bell-shaped tiara, while all the other ecclesiastics wear black hats with the crowns almost flat. A crosier is borne in front of him as the emblem of his office. Notice the richly embroidered robes and wide collars of these dignitaries. On either side of the Patriarch walks an attendant holding three tapers. Do you observe the double row of Turkish soldiers on either side, wearing the inevitable fez cap? These are the guards of the procession, keep- ing the crowd away from the sacred personages. Do you notice that many in the procession are 1 John xix:4i, 4 2 . Posit ion* 1*0, Map 3 . 90 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND carrying candles? We wonder what are the thoughts of those Moslem soldiers who stand on guard to protect these Christians from each other. More than one riot has taken place within those sacred walls. The pavement around the Sepulchre has been covered with blood and heaped with dead bodies from the quarrels of so-called Christian sects. For Position 28, main tour, see page 01. * Now find on the Jerusalem map, numbered 3, the Turkish governor’s palace at the northwestern corner of the Temple area, the site of the Tower of Antonia. Tra- dition tells us that that was the Pretorium, or Judgment Hall of Pontius Pilate. Trace from there a street run- ning a little south of west, meeting Valley Street, and following it a short distance to the southeast, then again taking a course south of west to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On that winding route, at the spot marked 27a, we take our next position. Position 27a. Devout pilgrims carrying a great cross through the Via Dolorosa Is this street thronged with pilgrims actually the Sor- rowful Way — the Via Dolorosa, through which our Sa- viour walked from Pilate’s judgment hall to Calvary, bearing the cross until he sank under its weight? Evi- dently these worshipers believe it, as their reverent act and fervent looks attest. As a fitting memorial they are carrying a huge cross over the path which they unques- tioningly believe was trodden by their Lord. On the walls that line the street are the stations of the cross, as shown in Roman Catholic churches. But is this the real Street of Sorrows? Was this the route through which the Saviour of the world walked, a doomed man, bearing His Cross from the Gabbatha to the Golgotha? If we were certain that Pilate’s judgment hall was at the Tower of Antonia, and that Calvary was under the roof of the Holy Sepulchre Church, then this might indicate the general route, though the real street is doubt- less from thirty to fifty feet underground. But the evi- dence is as strong that Pilate’s courtroom was at the * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 27, 27n. Map 3. ON THE VIA DOLOROSA 91 Tower of David (Position 10), as at the Tower of Antonia, and it is certainly as strong to place Calvary on the north (as we shall see it later), as it is to place it on the west. Damascus Street, which runs north across the city, is just as likely to be the true Via Dolorosa as is this where the pilgrims are worshiping. But, whether the location be right or wrong, the fact is the same; and that mighty fact is brought before us on this street as nowhere else, that Jesus of Nazareth once stood in this city, crowned with thorns; that some pavement here was pressed by his torn feet; that on his lacerated back rested a cross, which he bore for you and me. That picture may take the place before our minds of this scene upon which our eyes are resting. Find on the main map of Jerusalem (Map 3) the place where the Via Dolorosa crosses a street run- ning north and south across the city. That is Da- mascus Street leading to the Damascus gate (Posi- tion 8). We will take our stand at the spot marked 28, on a house-roof near the gate, and view a hill just outside the northern wall of the city. Position 28. The “new” Calvary outside the Da- mascus Gate We have before us the prospect north from Jerusalem, so familiar to millions of eyes through the long past. But look for a moment on that rounded grassy knoll, with the two caverns yawning under it, and then recall those lines which have been sung so often : “There is a green hill far away Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all.” There are hints which point to this place as the hill of Calvary far more strongly than to the tradi- Po.sitioiiN 27n, 28. Map 3. 92 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND tional Holy Sepulchre. We know that Jesus was crucified outside the city ; 1 and this has always been without the wall, while the other Calvary may have been enclosed within it. The resemblance of that elevation, with its two caves, to a human skull with two eye-sockets, might have suggested the name Golgotha — “skull-like.” 2 Moreover, we know the cross was planted in a public place near to the city ; 3 and this is beside the Damascus road, one of the most frequented in all the land. Then, from early Jewish writings, we learn that this hill, north of the city, was given up to the execution of crim- inals, and received the name, — Place of Stoning. There is another remarkable statement made about this hill ; that it is, and has long been, especially hateful to the Jews of the city, who always utter a curse when they pass it, though they cannot tell why. Our Christian guide through Palestine told us that this is without question a fact, and that the words of the malediction when translated are “Cursed be the man who ruined our nation by call- ing himself its king.” If indeed this be “the place called Calvary,” then it is the center of the Chris- tian world. Picture to yourself three crosses yonder, with One Innocent in the center; see the circle of Jewish enemies and Roman soldiers around him; look at the sorrow-smitten mother, the sympathizing wom- en, the beloved disciple standing near; see the gloom gathering over the landscape, and hear the seven mighty words sounding out from the lips of the 'Crucified. Can you make yourself feel that it was 1 John xix:2o; Hebrews xiii:i2. s Matt. xxvii:39-44- a John xix : 17 ; Mark xv:2i, 22. 1'oMilion 28 . Map 3. THE NEW CALVARY 93 all real, and that it was for us he hung and suffered there? “What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, Was all for sinner’s gain: Mine, mine was the transgression. But Thine the deadly pain. Lo! here I fall, my Saviour; ’Tis I deserve Thy place; Look on me with Thy favor, Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.” For Position 20, main tour, see pace 94. * You have noticed upon the left a group of modern buildings of stone. Near those buildings, in the side of the hill, and hidden by the hill as we stand at Position 28, is a garden, and in the garden the entrance to an ancient tomb — our next object of interest. Map 3 shows the number 28a marking where we are to stand. Position 28a. Rock-hewn tomb in cliff, outside Jerusa- lem, possible tomb of Jesus We are now near the southwestern side of the hill called the “New” Calvary. Here in 1882 the distinguished General Gordon, then in charge of explorations in Pales- tine (later slain at Khartoum in Africa), found a tomb in the side of the hill, which he regarded as the true se- pulchre of Jesus. You can see the door of entrance to the cave, excavated out of the native rock, and also a window giving light to the tomb within. You notice that the further wall by the door is of modern construction. This was recently built to preserve the ancient wall, which was in a crumbling condition. Just before us is the hill which we saw from Position 28, and Jerusalem is on our right. The oriental with cap and shawl cover- ing his head and shoulders, and wearing the customary outer robe for chilly weather, stands pointing to the door of the tomb. He might be John, on the morning of the first Easter day, summoned by Mary Magdalene, with the news that the door was open and the body of Jesus taken away. You remember that John outran Peter on the way, but, arriving first, stood reverently at the door. 1 How like John it was to stand at the entrance; and how *For Supplementary Tour only. 'John xx:i-io. PoHltlons 28, 28a. Map 3. 94 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND like Peter it was to rush forward into the tomb, and see for himself that the body was no longer there! Do you remember that John, though second to enter the tomb, was the first to believe that the Master had risen; and to believe before he had seen him living? He saw the long grave-clothes wrapped and lying in order; he saw the napkin that had covered the face carefully folded and laid by itself; and then the conviction dawned upon his consciousness that this was no stealthy robbery of a grave, but the calm conduct of One who was in no haste to depart. “Then that disciple saw and believed!” Blessed were they who believed after they had seen their Lord; more blessed the disciple alone of the eleven who believed without the sight. This property now belongs to an association of Eng- lish people, who keep it in repair, and aim to preserve it in its original condition. As we stand in the place, still kept as a garden, it seems far more like the tomb of Jesus than the artificial gaudy construction of gilded marble under the dome of the Holy Sepulchre Church. And yet, we cannot say that this is certainly, or even probably, the tomb of our Saviour. The evidence war- rants us in saying that it may possibly be the place where our Lord’s body was laid. Although we cannot be sure that this hill known as the “new” Calvary is the place of the crucifixion, nor that the rock-hewn tomb in the one-time garden on its slope is the one where Jesus was laid, yet to pass beyond its portals is to enter an enclosure made sacred by the reverent belief of a multitude of Christians. Let us now stand at the door of the inner tomb-chamber and look within. Position 29. The “Tomb of our Lord/’ — New Cal- vary Who are these two people in white garments that have seated themselves in this cave? They are young Syrian girls from the English Protestant school, dressed in the costumes of their people; and Position** 28a, 29. Map 3. THE NEW CALVARY 95 they simply show us how two people might have appeared in such a tomb as this, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain . 1 We dare not say that this was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, where from sunset on Fri- day until early in the morning of Sunday, the form of the Crucified lay wrapped in grave clothes. But we can say that this tomb is found where once has been a garden, in the side of a hill that may be Cal- vary ; 2 that it belongs to the Roman period, as its form shows ; that it was hewn out of the rock ; that but one burial-place was completed in it , 3 although two others were left unfinished ; and that the recep- tacle for the body was such that two people could be seated beside it, as the women found the two angels on that Easter morning. Even the possibility that we may be looking upon the rock-walls which once enclosed the body of Jesus makes our heart beat faster! And it should bring the scenes of the burial, the sealing, and the rising vividly before us. Not far away stood the cross — it could not have been more than a few hun- dred feet away — from which tender hands took down the torn, dead body of “Him who they had trusted would redeem Israel.” Imagine the little procession down the hillside in the gathering gloom ; the body hastily wrapped in linen clothes, and the napkin covering the face ; the women standing by and watching while all that seems to be left of the Nazarene is laid to rest in yonder rocky bed ; the stone rolled against the door, and stamped with the ruler’s seal. Can we bring home to ourselves how * Luke xxiii:53; Matt. xxvii:6o. 1 John xx:n-i2. * John xix: 4 i. Position 29. Map 3. 96 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND they felt on that night as they turned away from the tomb and from the hill? For Position 30, main tour, see page 97. * There is another tomb in this vicinity, which will show a “stone rolled away.” Find on Map 3 the Tombs of the Kings, half a mile from the city, and a little to the northwest of the “New Calvary.” Here a vast system of sepulchral caves has been discovered, which shed much light upon the forms of burial among the Jews. Though called the Tombs of the Kings, they were excavated long after Jewish kings had ceased to reign in Palestine. It will pay us to go and see the way in which a tomb was closed by rolling a stone against it. It will make the entrance to our Lord’s tomb real to us as it never has been before. Our standpoint is marked 29a. Position 29a. A tomb with the stone rolled away Notice that dark opening to a tomb, approached by steps where these two young women are seated. Do you see the round, flat stone standing at the door? A frag- ment has been broken off on one side, but the curve in the edge of the stone is shown, and also the groove in which it has been rolled when the sepulchre was closed. You can see how heavy it must be. When it rolls for- ward, it goes down an incline and drops into a niche. To roll it in its channel and especially to roll it up away from the tomb entrance would require the strength of several men, and would be far beyond the power of women like those seated at the entrance. 1 Moreover, when shut, the entrance could be easily sealed, as we know our Lord’s tomb was sealed when the watch was set. 2 A visit to such a tomb as this, less than a mile from the place where Jesus was buried, ought to make the facts in the gospel history exceedingly real. It was in connection with such a tomb as this, and not far from here, that occurred that most momentous of all events for the salvation of the world — Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Our salvation depends upon this — a risen 1 Mark xvin-3. 2 Matt. xxvii:66. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 29, 29a. Map 3. THE NEW CALVARY 97 Christ: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and our faith is also vain.” To such a stone door as this the Roman soldiers brought, toward evening of that terrible day, the dead body of Christ. Such a stone as this they moved, with straining muscle. You can see the ponderous stone roll upon its channel; you can hear an echo sound through the cave as it strikes the wall; you can think of the utter despair of any return to life that the sound brought to those women as they realized that all was over, and the Master whom they loved was sealed within the iron hills . 1 But can you also picture to yourself the surprise two days afterward, when those same women found the great stone rolled away and an angel sitting upon it? Mary Magdalene saw it first, and ran to bring word to the disciples, but, soon returning, was the first to meet her risen Lord. How real it all seems! Find now on the main map of Jerusalem the Casa Nuova or Latin Hospice, a little to the north of the Jaffa Gate, and west of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The building is a refuge or hotel, — after the eastern class, — for pilgrims of the Latin, or Roman Catholic Church. It offers an excellent position from which to view the city. We shall stand next on its roof, at the south side of a tower and look across the city toward the east. Find on the map numbered 3 the number 30 in red, with red lines diverging from it ; you will see that our view is to extend far over the city, and to end against the height on the east. Position 30. Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives — East from the Latin Hospice Yonder, rising outside the city walls to the east, is the Mount of Olives crowned by the pointed tower of a Russian church. And how plainly we 1 Matt. xxvii:6o, 61. Positions 29a, 30. Map 3. 98 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND can trace those three paths climbing the hill! By one of those, certainly — more likely by all of them at different times — our Saviour walked over the Mount of Olives to Bethany, which lies on the other side of the ridge. Then it was a succession of ter- races completely covered with vines and olives. Now the hillside is bleak and bare, with compara- tively few trees. It is green only in the spring; after a few months the grass dries up and only the grayish olive foliage is left to give an effect of ver- dure and life. Now let us look at the city below us. We are looking in a direction almost precisely opposite that of Position 16, when we were over there on Olivet, facing west. There on the left is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which we have visited (Positions 25, 26). The house roofs near us are all tiled and somewhat pointed. Now, as we look more closely across the city, we see quite a mass of small domes around the Dome of the Rock. Those little houses around it are in the Moslem or Mohammedan quar- ter; these near at hand are the best in the Christian quarter. Most of them are tiled, but a few are shingled, and one of them has a wooden shed on the roof, you notice. The smoke from household fires usually makes its exit by a window or door, but chimney pipes have been introduced during the last few years. Household refuse is thrown out into the streets, and the streets are cleaned so seldom their condition becomes wretchedly unsanitary. One reason for the neglect is the difficulty of secur- ing proper supplies of water for scrubbing and flushing pavements. That low, square tower at the right of the Sep- Position 30. Map 3. JERUSALEM AND MOUNT OF OLIVES 99 ulchre Church dome is the bell-tower of the church. Farther to the right you notice a new pointed tower, with round-arched window openings — that belonged once to the Church of St. John, the headquarters of the Knights of St. John in the crusading ages. We have seen it before. How plainly we can see the upper courts of the houses near at hand and the stone stairways leading up to them ! But for these, the women in those houses would have no out-of-doors, no fresh air, and no sunshine. You notice that around every breath- ing-place on the roof there is a battlement for the safety of those who frequent it, just as was com- manded in the ancient law . 1 Do you observe those small, round openings in the wall just below at the right, and in other walls farther away? Those are constructed to allow the women to look out and see a bit of what is going on around them without being seen by others. 1 Deuteronomy xxii:8. Position 30. Map 3. PART II. SOUTHERN JUDEA, THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN [Regular tour, 31-50, including 20 positions. Sup- plementary tour, 32a-5oa, including 27 positions. ) You noticed on the Mount of Olives the tower of a Russian church, a landmark seen miles away in almost every direction. We will cross the city to Olivet and take our next view from that Russian tower. The Jerusalem-Bethany map (4) marks our standpoint 31 and indicates the reach of our outlook by spreading lines. Position 31. Jerusalem, center of Christian history, seen west from Tower on the Mount of Olives Our present point is the most lofty from which a view of Jerusalem may be taken ; and we have reached it without climbing the two hundred and fourteen steps inside the tower! You perceive that the buildings directly beneath us are new; they are connected with the Russian Orthodox (Greek) Church. Beyond is a wretched Mohammedan vil- lage, mostly inhabited by unfortunate beggars. No- tice the irregular wall, almost a circle, surrounding the village mosque. We cannot see the western slope of the Mount of Olives, but we look across the valley below and see the eastern declivity of Mount Moriah, and the long quadrangle of the PoNitlon 31. Map 4. IOI 102 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Temple enclosure, called in Arabic the Haram es Sherif, or Noble Sanctuary. Look at the eastern wall of the Temple and the city, and notice how the level of the Temple platform rises above it. On the extreme left you see the Mosque el-Aksa, di- rectly in the middle the octagonal Dome of the Rock. On the right of the dome, at the extreme right-hand corner of the Temple area you see a building with a tower rising above the nearer houses. That is the Turkish Governor’s Palace, al- ready familiar from other standpoints. If the head of that Arab up here on the balcony were not di- rectly in the way, we might see the Pool of Beth- esda, where Jesus cured a cripple. 1 You can see in the wall of the city the closed-up Golden Gate, and a path inside the wall leading to it. In the distance you see the hills of Judea, which furnished a natural rampart on the west of the city. Let us walk around this balcony on the Russian tower and look eastward from very near the same point of view. Map 4 marks our field of vision. Position 32. From Olivet over the Wilderness, Jor- dan Valley, and Dead Sea to Moab What a contrast in our western and eastern views from the same Tower! On one side a city of sixty thousand inhabitants with domes and towers, roofs and walls ; on the other side a frowning wilderness with a few small villages, and on its bare mountains scarcely a tree to be seen ! This land before us is the wilderness of Judea, inhabited only by a few wandering Arabs, and as desolate in the days of the 1 John v: 2 - 9 . Positions 31, 32. Map 4. VIEW FROM OLIVET 103 Bible as it is now. You see that one road, shut in by walls on either side, running eastward and then turning; that is the main road to Bethany, over which Jesus and his disciples walked often; for Bethany, you remember, was his home when visit- ing the capital, the city being filled with his ene- mies, and Bethany having at least one home where all were his friends . 1 The village itself is just out- side the limits of our view at the right; we shall visit it later. You can see at either end of that rugged mountain rising above the hills, a sheet of water. From our tower it appears as if it might be not more than three or five miles distant ; but it is the Dead Sea, twelve to fifteen miles away, and to be reached only after a rough and difficult journey. That sea brings to our mind the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah . 2 The old opinion was that they are covered by its waters ; in fact, more than one imag- inative explorer has found their ruins in its blue depths ! But it is now held by many that they were small towns on the plain of the Jordan at the head of the Dead Sea, not far from Jericho. The dreary landscape before us — its treeless hills with scarcely a spadeful of earth upon them — is a fair sample of the Judean country all along the bor- der of the Dead Sea. West of this desolate country there is a strip of fertile land, whereon the principal towns of Judea were built. One may wonder that so powerful a tribe as Judah was contented with so poor a heritage, having an uninhabitable desert on the east and the warlike Philistines on the west. But those very surroundings were one influence in shaping Judah’s history. It was protected from in- 1 Mark xi:u; John xii:i, 2. 2 Genesis xix:24, 25. ['option 32 . Map 4 . 104 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND vasion by its isolation and by the difficulty of at- tacking its territory, hence its people maintained a character of their own, dwelling apart from the other tribes; Judah lived on in its mountain for- tresses long after Israel had passed away. Do you see that path winding eastward over the hills? Who knows but that over that path walked the aged Naomi and the young widow Ruth on their way from Moab (in the distance yonder) to Bethle- hem ? 1 For Position 33, main tour, see page 105. * Still standing on the Russian tower on the Mount of Olives, we turn our view southward over the hill-country of Judah. Map 4 will show us that position (32a) and the extent of our prospect. Position 32a. From Olivet south over the Judean hills to Frank Mountain Two landscapes of very different nature are within the sweep of our vision. On our left we catch a glimpse of the dreary, desolate Wilderness of Judea; but nearly all our view embraces the hillsides of an inhabited and cultivated country. Few of the villages are in sight, as they are mostly hidden behind the hills. A little to our right, beyond one of those hills, lies Bethlehem. Over those heights and through those valleys may have marched David of old, coming up from Hebron with his mighty men for the siege of Jerusalem. Through that same region may have traveled the young maiden of Nazareth, Mary, on her way with her wondrous story to visit her cousin, Elizabeth; 2 and over its rough highroad may have passed Joseph and Mary, her hour close at hand, hurry- ing toward Bethlehem for the event which was destined to change the current of the world’s history. 3 Do you see that peak yonder in the distance, lifting it- self just above the horizon? That is Frank Mountain; crowned by a fortress of Herod the Great, and called af- ter him Herodium. Josephus tells us also that Herod 1 Ruth L16-19. 2 Luke 1:39. * For Supplementary Tour only. 3 Luke ii:4, 5. Position** 32, 32a. Map 4. VIEW FROM OLIVET 105 was buried there. There in the middle ages was another strong fortress of the Crusaders, which finally fell before Turkish besiegers. Just to the right of the Frank Moun- tain, in one of those hills, is a vast cave, where many believe that David and his followers found a hiding-place from King Saul . 1 Over these mountains David and his men walked often during the years of his wandering. From the Russian tower we descend to visit the village of Bethany, on a southeastern slope of Oli- vet. Map 4 marks 33, the spot where we are to stand. Position 33. Bethany, where our Lord was anointed by Mary, south from the eastern slope of Olivet What a squalid, miserable place it is ! Can you imagine Martha, that careful housekeeper, having her home in such a cluster of hovels? Most of the people living here to-day are wretchedly poor; that young woman’s string of silver coins glittering over her forehead represents the larger part of the sav- ings of her family — accumulated funds are kept in this form instead of being put in a bank as would be the case in our own country. We must sweep away the present, and build in our thoughts another Bethany on that hillside ; for the Palestine of to-day is only the shadow and the ruin of the Palestine two thousand years ago. The stones that formed part of Martha’s and Mary’s house are unquestionably on that ground now, al- though there is not any individual house now stand- ing in the village that was standing when Jesus visited Bethany. Yet we may be shown all the places connected with the New Testament story in 1 1 Sam. xxii:!* Positions 32a, 33. Map 4. 106 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND this place; for instance, do you see on the right, just outside the village, two ruined towers? There, they tell us, was the house of Simon the leper , 1 where the feast was made in honor of Jesus, when Martha served, and Mary anointed the Saviour’s feet. Simon must have been a rich man, they suppose, and hence they give his name to the largest house in the place. Near it, but out of our present range of vision, is the so-called tomb of Lazarus. It would tax our credulity to accept these exact locations, but we know they all once stood upon this hillside; we know that our Lord walked over these paths, and counted yonder village as one of his homes. It is probable that even in his earlier visits to Jerusalem Jesus stayed here, since both Luke and John give us hints to that effect . 2 We know that in the third year of his ministry (the year of opposition), he came to this very place, and found Lazarus dead, and four days in the tomb . 3 Try to call up that scene — the sorrowing sisters, the sympathizing friends, the sepulchre with stone before its door, the tears of Jesus, then the mighty word of command, and the form wrapped in burial-clothes standing alive ! That most marvelous of the miracles of Jesus, save the crowning one of all, his own Resur- rection — has stamped itself upon this place. Its name now is el Azariyeh, “the Lazarus.” Who has not wished to ask, as the great laureate has written 4 “Where wert thou, brother, those four days? There lives no record of reply, Which, telling what it is to die Had surely added praise to praise. 1 Mark xiv:3-9. 2 Luke x: 38-42; John xin-5. 3 John xi:i7. 4 Tennyson’s In Memoriam, xxxi, xxxii. Position 33. Map 4. BETHANY 107 “Behold a man raised up by Christ! The rest remaineth unrevealed. He told it not, or something sealed The lips of that Evangelist.” There are other questions that haunt us concern- ing Lazarus after his return to life here: What became of him? What kind of man would he be who has come back from the other world? Another great poet has tried to answer these questions in his own way, imagining a physician of the time writing a letter to another physician after an interview with Lazarus, thirty years after his resurrection . 1 One other event in the life of Christ, the closing scene of all, comes before us as we look on this place. Here Jesus was seen for the last time on the earth, ascending into heaven , 2 not from Beth- any, but somewhere near. For Position 34, main tour, see page 109. * Before we leave this vicinity let us take one more look at Jerusalem. We will stand upon one of the hills on the south looking up all the three valleys. Map 3 or 4 marks the spot where we are to stand and the range of our outlook. Position 33a. Jerusalem from the south, showing Ophel, with Tyropoeon and Kedron valleys We are facing northwest toward Jerusalem from the western side of the lower Kedron valley. You can see all three valleys, which were around and within the city. There is Kedron on the right, very deep in the part im- mediately before us. That is the village of Siloam on the right side of the Mount of Olives. We are looking over the Valley of Hinnom. We cannot see its bed, but can trace its direction. Now, look up the hill directly before us; can you not discover a slight depression in it? That 1 Robert Browning: An Epistle containing the strange medical ex- perience of Karshish, the Arab physician. 2 Luke xxiv:so-53; Acts i: 8 -i 2. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 33, 33a. Maps 3, 4. io8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND depression marks the course of the ancient valley of the Tyropoeon, which has become filled up in the changes of time. But, by means of the sinking of shafts its course has been followed through the city, and a fallen bridge across it has been located. You notice that the present southern wall of the city stands high on the hillside of Zion on the left and Ophel on the right of the Tyro- poeon valley. In ancient times the wall ran along the foot of those hills, enclosing a city much larger than the present wall encloses. You can see above Ophel (which is a lower spur or foothill of Moriah), the Dome of the Rock, also the Mosque el-Aksa. That open space of Ophel has great interest for the student of Bible history, for modern scholars are now quite agreed that there was the original Jerusalem. On that little hill was the Salem of Melchi- zedek, who, according to the familiar story of Genesis, gave his blessing to Abraham. 1 Not far from the Mosque el-Aksa stood the palace of David, and later the elabo- rate group of Solomon’s palaces. 3 Down in the valley on the right was Gihon, where Solomon was crowned king. 8 Perhaps you can see, just at the foot of the Tyropoeon valley, on the left of it, the square enclosure of the Pool of Siloam, with a tower just beyond. There, you remem- ber, the blind man was led at Christ’s command, and went away seeing.* On the side hill of Zion, once covered with dwellings, we now look at gardens and olive trees. * Let us follow the old road down from Jerusalem toward Bethlehem, and find our next position, where Map 2 marks with the number 33b a spot beside the highway. Position 33b. The traditional tomb of Rachel, beside the Jerusalem-Bethlehem highway That plain building does not look much like the tomb -of a rich man’s wife; but the tradition which regards it as the burial-place of Rachel is almost as old as the Chris- tian era. You remember that Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, for whom he served her father Laban fourteen years in Mesopotamia. 8 While on the road between Bethel and Ephrathah (which has been regarded as an- 1 G«n. xiv:i8. ‘John ixn-7. 4 II Sam. v:n; I Kings vii:i-n. 5 Genesis xxix:i8-20. * I Kings 1-38. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 23a, 33b. Maps 3, 4, 2. TOMB OF RACHEL 109 other name for Bethlehem 1 ) she died, in giving birth to Benjamin, and was buried “in the way .” 2 From time im- memorial this has been accepted as Rachel’s burial-place. Try to call up the picture of the aged patriarch, with his eleven sons, standing around this spot, thirty-six centuries ago. They saw the same hills, the same rolling country, the same fields, as those upon which we are now looking. In the face of the local tradition there is a reference to Rachel’s sepulchre in I Samuel x:2, which would seem to fix the location far to the north, “in the border of Benjamin”; but we will leave the critics to settle the question. The tomb has been built and rebuilt over and over again. You notice that one part of the present structure appears more ancient than the other. Look at that row of camels by the roadside! Does not that bring up before you the picture of the unchanging East? From just such animals Jacob and his followers may have dismounted at this very place. The road is noteworthy as being broad and well-made — unusual in this country. It is the great highway be- tween Jerusalem and Hebron, over which Abraham went northward in his pursuit of the five kings, and south- ward on his return.* David marched northward past this place when he besieged Jerusalem . 4 Joseph and Mary may have passed here on their journey to Bethlehem, only two miles to the south . 6 Let us now find, on Map 5, the town of Bethle- hem, six miles south of Jerusalem. Our next out- look will be from the roof of a hillside building across most of the town and southeast to the lonely hills beyond. Position 34. David’s city, Bethlehem, southeast to Frank Mountain We are in Bethlehem, — Bethlehem of Judea, look- ing over the city from the northwest. One point in our present view is familiar (Position 32a), — the 4 IT Sam. v:6. 5 Luke ii:4-5. 1 Micah v.2; Ruth iv:u. 2 Genesis xxxv : 1 6- 1 9. 8 Genesis xiv: 13-24. Positions 33b, 34. Maps 2, 5. IIO TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Frank Mountain rising above the horizon four miles distant. That is suggestive, for Josephus says that it is the burial-place of Herod the Great. He who sought to slay the One born to be King, and in his impotent rage slaughtered the innocent little ones of this very village, 1 lies in his grave, turned to dust, while the Holy Child reigns over an empire so vast that Herod’s kingdom appears scarcely a minute principality beside it ! As we look over these houses in the city they seem more modern than most of those in Palestine. There are two reasons for this comfortable, well- to-do aspect of the place. One is that Bethlehem is a Christian city; that is, its people are not Moham- medans nor Jews: and Christian towns always look more prosperous than Turkish. One cause why this city is thus a Christian center is that in 1831 the Christians rose, drove the Moslems out of the town, and destroyed the Mohammedan quarter. Since that time there has been not much quarreling between Christians and Mohammedans, but, instead, a constant strife, especially at Easter and Christ- mas, between the different sects of so-called fol- lowers of Christ. The other reason for the pros- perity of the place is that it is visited annually by tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists, most of whom spend some money and take away souvenirs of their visit, so the residents of Bethlehem reap an annual harvest of shekels, and most of them can live in fair comfort. That young woman who stands near us on this balcony is dressed in the fashion of a native Chris- tian. Do you notice the ornaments upon her head- 1 Matt. ii:7-i8. Position 34. Map 5. BETHLEHEM III covering? Those are coins, such as form a part of each girl’s bridal outfit. You remember the parable of “the lost coin” ; how the woman searched her house diligently ; that was because it was one of the coins in her wedding portion . 1 Look down that narrow street, lined with blank walls and disappearing from sight in an arch, where a house extends over it. From our elevated point of view we see that a “battlement” or wall sur- mounts each flat roof to protect people who walk upon it . 2 Do you notice that some of the houses have rooms opening upon this upper court or roof- space? Those are the sleeping-rooms of the family; much of social life with neighbors takes place on adjoining roofs. The Bethlehem of to-day is a different place from the Bethlehem of Bible times. It was then a coun- try village, although large enough to have a wall, since we read of its gate. But its fame as the birth- place, not only of David but of David’s royal de- scendant, Jesus Christ, has made it one of the “holy places” and drawn toward it inhabitants as well as pilgrims, so that it is one of the larger cities of Palestine. For Position 35, main tour, see page 113. * We will change our position, from the northwest to the northern side of the city, where Map 5 shows a spot marked 34a. We will turn our eyes northward toward Jerusalem. Position 34a. Hills and fields of Judea, north from Bethlehem, showing road to Jerusalem We are looking from the northern wall of Bethlehem. That road which we see winding its way over the fields 'Luke xv:8-io. * For Supplementary Tour only. 2 Deut. xxii:8. Positions 34, 34a. Map 5. 112 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND is the old road between Hebron on the south and Jerusa- lem on the north. What memories of Abraham, and Ruth, and David, and of Joseph and Mary, and of the Wise Men coming from the east, that road brings up! Those buildings on the left belong to some of the subur- ban estates of Bethlehem. You notice that all of them are modern, and some are quite extensive. They are the homes of well-to-do people, who prefer the open fields to the crowded, narrow streets of the city. If we could climb to that hilltop, in the distance, we should see from it the Mount of Olives, and on its summit the Rus- sian tower, which we have noticed as being so prominent in the landscape. * The town behind us is full of storied interest, so let us explore some of its thoroughfares. Position 34b. The main street of Bethlehem, leading from the Church of the Nativity, looking northwest Here is the principal street in a town of ten thousand people, and you notice that it is one about fifteen feet wide. There is no sidewalk, but in its place a slight de- pression, so that sewage may run off. In the bare, bleak walls on either side are the entrances to the houses. If we could enter those doors we might find considerable elegance in some of the homes, however unprepossessing may be the external appearance. The dog wandering in the street is characteristic of the Orient. He has no owner, and there are hundreds more like him in this town. Each dog has his own habitat, a block or region reserved by dog-law for a certain group; and woe to the stray beast who trespasses upon it! Look at that group of small boys just before us. David, in his childhood, may have looked like one of these; before he was old enough to be trusted with the sheep, he doubtless played with other boys in a street like this, in this very town. Do you see the two women walking toward us, one car- rying a bundle upon her arm? Might not those be the aged widow Naomi, coming home to Bethlehem from the land of Moab, with her daughter-in-law Ruth, the Moa- bitess, who has chosen Israel’s people and Israel’s God? 1 Notice that large house on the left, with its little bal- cony projecting over the street. Some such house as that * For Supplementary Tour only. 1 Ruth i: 15-22. Positions 34a, 34b. Map 5. BETHLEHEM 113 was the home of the rich Boaz, over which Ruth later presided . 1 And on such a street as this walked Joseph, the wood-worker of Nazareth, with his young wife Mary, seeking a refuge in her hour of need . 3 These are among the memories aroused by this street in Bethlehem. The southeastern part of the town is its center of interest. Position 35. Bethlehem of Judea, the birthplace of Jesus, west from the Church of the Nativity We are looking down upon the market-place of Bethlehem from the roof of the ancient church built over the spot where Jesus may have been born. That pavement just in front is before the entrance of the church, and that procession of nuns is walk- ing from a convent near by into the church for a service. Do you notice those two cone-shaped heaps on the ground near the buildings on the left? That is grain for sale ; if we were nearer we could watch the business of barter and sale, which is a serious matter, even when a mere peck of barley is the subject of concern. There is a carriage in the square, waiting to take a tourist or two down the road to Hebron, or up the road to Jerusalem. That tall tower in front looks like the minaret of a mosque, and such it may have been in earlier years. The distant spire and tower belong to a Greek church ; for in this city all the great churches are represented — Greek, Roman and Armenian. The building with many arched windows, on the right, is a monastery. Three names stand out in the annals of Bethle- 1 Ruth ii : x and iv.13. 2 Luke ii:4*7. Positions 34b, 35. M«p 5. 1 14 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND hem, Ruth, her great-grandson David, and David’s greater descendant, Jesus the Christ. Who knows but these walls may have echoed to the song, “The Lord is my shepherd/’ when it was sung for the first time to the accompaniment of David’s harp? Yonder slope on the right leads downward to the city gate ; and up that very slope one day climbed a tired young woman, leaning on her husband, and vainly seeking a resting-place, until she found it in a stable, just under the roof where we are standing; and there in a manger she laid her first-born son, whose name has given a world-wide glory to this “little town of Bethlehem.” 1 Up that same ascent in the dead of night came hastening the shepherds to look upon the wondrous Babe ; 2 came later those men from the distant East, the Magi, led by a star, to worship around the cradle of the child and to lay their gifts at his feet . 3 Can you not see another little company in the night — Joseph and Mary, and their Babe, hastening from the city to escape the sword of Herod? 4 They will show you just outside the city a cave where it is said the virgin mother tarried to nurse her infant ; and where a drop of mother’s milk fell on the floor, a spring of water bubbled up, and has been flowing ever since. There is a better memorial of Jesus in this town than any cave ; it is an English Protestant school, taught by some devoted Christian women, where you can hear a company of little children carol in English and in Arabic the verse, “Hark, the herald angels sing!” We will descend from our elevated position, and standing down near the farther end of that open 1 Luke ii : 4-7 . 2 Luke ii :8-i 8. Position 35. Map 5. 3 Matt. ii:i-i2. 4 Matt, ii : 1 3- 1 5. BETHLEHEM 115 square, look at the church, which is a center of in- terest to the whole Christian world. Position 36. Church of the Nativity, built where Jesus was born Here is the market-place of Bethlehem, near its gate ; the place where business has been transacted for at least three thousand years. To one accus- tomed to the changing fashions of the West it is difficult to think of this company as actually exist- ing to-day, at the beginning of the twentieth cen- tury — it is easier to feel that we are back in the past, looking at the people of those far-off times. What subjects have been discussed on this spot by groups like these, back through the ages! What eyes have looked here on similar scenes ! Here, undoubtedly, took place that bargain by which Boaz, the rich farmer, bought the right to marry Ruth, when the seller as a token gave his shoe to the buyer. 1 How many times has grain been sold here as we see men selling it now in this market place ! Note the man buying grain near us, the good measure he is getting, the grain being pressed down and running over. It is an ancient custom here in the East to give the man who buys every kernel he can make lie on the measure. Now turn in the Bible to Luke vi : 38, and see whether you do not feel that Christ had just such a scene in mind — a scene which He had often looked upon — when he uttered those words: “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom, for with the same measure that 1 Ruth iv:i-i2. Positions 35, 30. Mup 5. Il6 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. ,r Do not these words come now with greater force than ever before? Could that great truth have been expressed in a more forceful way? What a great teacher Christ was! That building beyond is of deep interest, for many believe, and with some reason, that it stands over the very place where our Divine Teacher and Saviour was born. The church stands in the center, flanked by three monasteries, two of which we see, one on the left and the other extending toward us on the right. It is thought that the central struc- ture is the one erected here in 320 A.D. by the Em- peror Constantine. At any rate, this is an example of the earliest Christian style of architecture, and, according to Jerome, who lived here shortly after its construction, this church was undoubtedly built upon the site of the Bethlehem khan, or inn. The khans on ancient caravan routes were situated at certain fixed places and held their positions for cen- turies, so it is very possible that the inn spoken of by Jerome was in the same place as the one to which Joseph and Mary came. Tradition as early as the second century (Justin Martyr) holds that the stable of this inn was a rock-hewn cave. Though there may be lingering doubt in regard to the exactness of this location of Christ’s birthplace, still we need not let the spirit of criticism deprive us of those emotions which a scene in Bethlehem should awaken. This locality was referred to under the name of Ephratah, or Ephrath, “fruitful” 1 ; as Bethlehem-Judah 2 ; as the City of David. 3 For Position 37, main tour, see page 119. 1 Genesis xxxv:i9; Micah v:2. 3 I Samuel xvi:i8; Luke ii:u. 2 Ruth i : i. Position 30. Map 5. BETHLEHEM ii 7 * We will enter the church through a low and narrow door, and, in one of its chapels, descend a series of steps to its crypt. There we find a little room, where early tradition says that Jesus was born. Position 36a. The spot where the manger stood: grotto below Church of the Nativity This does not look much like a stable, where cattle were stalled, and yonder recess is rather large for a man- ger. But, as early as the fourth century, it was accepted as the birthplace of Jesus, and a church was built above where we stand. The cave is now about forty feet long, twelve feet wide, and ten feet high, everywhere lined with marble, hung with lamps, and decorated with golden (or gilded) ornaments. It may, in fact, have been the stable of the ancient inn, for caves were frequently put to such uses. Evidently that woman kneeling there has no doubt that she is in the very place where her Lord was born, and that the veritable manger wherein he was laid is beside her. How reverently she holds her votive taper, as with closed eyes she offers her prayer! In the floor there is set a silver star (which we cannot see at this point), and around it the inscription in Latin, Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. We may be looking upon the place where the babe of Bethlehem was laid, when wrapped in the long folds of an infant’s garment. 1 Perhaps the shepherds stood near the spot where that woman kneels. 2 In a room near by an altar is shown at the place where tradition says the Wise Men from the east bowed and presented their gifts. 8 Even though there is nothing in the present appearance of the place to suggest the scene of the Nativity, yet one must needs feel respect for the reverent faith of millions who have worshiped here. * If we go out of the city and turn to the east, we find open fields and olive orchards. Here is a grotto or cave, where we will take our next view. The place is marked 36b on Map 5. 1 Luke ii : 7. 2 Luke ii:8-2o. 3 Matt, iid-12. * For Supplementary Tour only. 'osition 36a. Map 5. Il8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Position 36b. Shepherds in the “Field of the Shep- herds” — Bethlehem Just as in ancient times, there are flocks of sheep pas- turing on the hills and in the fields near Bethlehem, and shepherds caring for them — rough, uncultivated, brave men, who must be ready to contend with robbers, even though the lion and the bear, with which David fought, are no longer found here. Tradition says (but only a late tradition, not earlier than the times of the Crusaders) that in this cave the shepherds were abiding, when the angel appeared announcing the birth of the Saviour. St. Luke tells us that they were “in the field,” keeping watch over their flocks; so that the location in a cave is prob- ably only a legend. But somewhere upon that plain stretching away in the background a group of shepherds were seated beside their flocks, when a light flashed, an angel came, and a song awoke in the sky. 1 Not far away is another cave, surrounding a well, where a miracle is said to have taken place. The Vir- gin-mother was just starting with her babe on the jour- ney to Egypt, and was in need of water. But the vil- lagers, in fear of Herod’s soldiers, who were pursuing, refused to draw water, when the spring in the bottom of the well suddenly rose up to the well-curb, supplied the Virgin’s needs, and then sank down again to its natural level! * Let us take one more view of Bethlehem from the hills on the southwest. Map 5 marks with the number 36c a spot on one of the hill terraces near where workers are busily occupied. Position 36c. Vineyards and watch-tower, showing Church of the Nativity, looking northwest Here is a characteristic scene of country life in the land of Judah. Near us is a vineyard, with a boy and girl gathering grapes. Observe the watch-tower, with its rude awning, and the watchman on guard, looking for thieves who may be lurking near. No vineyard in the country is safe without its watch-tower, mentioned by Jesus in his parable of the wicked husbandmen. 2 See those terraced hills, with their rows of olive trees, the source of the largest revenue in the land. That group 1 Luke 11:8-20. 2 Matt. xxi:33. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 30b, 30c. Map 5. BETHLEHEM 1 19 of buildings on the hill includes the Church of the Na- tivity; and you can see the town stretching away to the right. How often David must have looked upon this very hillside, and very likely gathered grapes in the fall, when grapes are ripe! You recall the song of Jacob, upon his dying bed: in the verses about Judah, he sang Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes; His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk . 1 The vine was ever a type or reminder of the tribe of Judah, as many a prophetic allusion tells us. a Map 5 marks with the number 37 a spot only a short distance from the town. If we go there we shall find another field, and we may look at a scene which takes us back to the times of the Old Testa- ment. Position 37. A barley harvest near Bethlehem That gray-bearded, turbaned farmer stands there at ease, while everybody else is hard at work ! Evi- dently he is the master of the reapers, maybe the owner of the field. His name might be Boaz, for aught we know. 3 See that donkey, almost hidden from view by the sheaves that cover him. Do you notice how primitive are the methods of gathering the grain, a reaping-hook cutting down a wisp at each stroke, and the sheaves made up and bound by hand? Do you see that baby sheltered from the sun in his cradle? Perhaps the woman with an armful of sheaves is his mother. These women work like the men from sunrise to sunset, for a few cents, 1 Gen. xlix:io-i2. 8 Ruth iin-4. 3 Isaiah v:i-i6, lxv:2i; Amos ix:i4. PoMitlonM 36c, 37. Map 5. 120 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND bringing their dinner with them to the field and eat- ing it during a short rest at noon. One of the two women in front has just taken a drink from the water-jug and is handing it to her companion. Ruth may have looked like one of these women, wrapped around the head with a coarse veil, and dressed in garments as common as these. Yet I think that a company of harvesters in the days of Boaz and Ruth would have been somewhat less ragged and common than this, for we must remem- ber that these are days in Palestine of oppression and robbery, when the people are kept wretchedly poor; while those were days of quiet, and in the main, of prosperity. We sometimes call the three centuries when the judges ruled the age of anarchy, because our conception of order implies some cen- tral government. But except at rare intervals of invasion and subjection the Israelites lived on their mountain summits in peace, tilling their fields, ob- taining at home all the necessities of food and cloth- ing, having absolutely no foreign relations, and with little use for a government. They were contented, frugal, and industrious; and when at times foreign foes held sway over them, there was always a Gideon , 1 or an Ehud , 2 or an Othniel 3 to appear as the champion of Israel and break the chain of op- pression. The whole period of the Judges, from Joshua to Samuel, sweeps before us as we look upon this harvest field. The Israelites tilled their fields, and occasionally went up to Shiloh to worship at the Tabernacle. Each man did what was right in his own eyes , 4 and, while there was a neglect of the 1 Judges vim-13. 3 Judges iii :p. 2 Judges iii : 15. 4 Judges xxi :2s. Position 37. Map 5. A BARLEY HARVEST 12 1 rites and ceremonies of the law, there were, upon the whole, prosperity and progress. It is evident that, during the period of the Judges’ rule the tribe of Judah had very little to do with the brother-tribes. We read of no Judahites in the armies of Deborah or Gideon or Jephthah. Judah lived its own life apart from the rest of the nation, until David made it the ruling tribe among the twelve. For Position 38, main tour, see page 132. * We will transfer our point of view to the point marked 37a (on Map 2) in the wilderness on the south of Beth- lehem. There we have a chance to study a kind of life quite different from that of the town and village people whom we have been meeting. Position 37a. Arabs and their tents in the Wilderness of Tekoa; outlook east to Bethlehem How desolate and barren is this plateau! Not a tree, scarcely a spear of grass, is in sight. And there is no reason to suppose that since the dawn of history it has ever been very different from its present condition. Some patches of cultivation may be found in the valleys, but the soil even there is dry and stony. No living creature ex- cept an Arab and his camel can extract even a precarious living from this barren waste. During David’s years of wandering, when pursued by Saul, he found for a time a refuge in these regions. His tents probably looked like these black tents of the Arab encampment. You might imagine that large tent with the stripes upon it as Da- vid’s, for it evidently belongs to the chief of the clan, and his wives live in its further and secluded end. Da- vid himself was not unlike the young Arab standing by the stone — except that he never had a tobacco pipe in his mouth! A hundred years after David, in the times of Jehosha- phat, King of Judah, one might have seen a great pro- cession marching across this plain — singers, harpers and trumpeters in advance, and an army of soldiers follow- * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 37, 37a. Maps 5, 2. 122 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND ing, on their way to meet the Ammonite host . 1 But a little to the south of this place, they found the enemies’ camp deserted, and a multitude of their dead bodies, for they had quarreled among themselves and slain each other. Look closely upon the hills in the distance, and you will see Bethlehem, five miles to the north. So, when David encamped here, he could see the roofs of his native village from his tent-door. Perhaps it was a homing in- stinct that drew him toward this region. There is another great name associated with this dis- trict — that of the prophet Amos , 2 who was a herdsman here, and cared for a flock which fed on the grass in the valleys. Once Amos was spoken of as a “minor” proph- et; but now he stands forth as one of the greatest in the goodly fellowship. From this plain, at God’s call, he walked twenty miles northward to Bethel, where he de- livered his message before the idol temple which had become the king’s chapel. David, Jehoshaphat, Amos — these are the three names that give glory to the wilder- ness of Tekoa. For our next position we seek the rugged moun- tains and ravines of Judah, west of the Dead Sea. Position 38. A shepherd in David’s home-country leading his flock over the Judean hills Look at these steep mountains, bordered by deep valleys! It is no wonder that David could escape from Saul’s soldiers, by changing his camp con- stantly among the passes, especially since the few inhabitants were friendly to David as their fellow tribesman, and against Saul as a Benjamite. The men of Judah were ever clannish, and lived apart from the other tribes, until their great fellow-Judah- ite David lifted the clan into prominence. That shepherd, if he were younger, might be David; or in a later time might be the prophet 1 II Chron. xx:i- 26 . 2 Amos i:i. Positions 37a, 38. Map 2. A SHEPHERD IN JUDEA 123 Amos. You notice that he does not drive his sheep as shepherds are apt to do among us. He leads, and they follow, pressing close upon his footsteps, the lambs, as the weaker ones, bringing up the rear. What a picture there is in the relation of the shep- herd, as caretaker, provider and defender, to his sheep, implicitly following and trusting him! Pos- sibly while David was watching over his flock the thought of the twenty-third Psalm came to him, and he said — The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. But there is a maturity of religious experi- ence revealed in the psalm which points to a later age; so that many scholars hold that it was by some later poet, who lived after the temple had been built (as the closing verse indicates). This modern herdsman also brings to us the herdsman prophet Amos, 1 whose home was among these mountains, and whose message is rich in illus- trations of outdoor life. He had heard the roar of lions in this wilderness and had seen the birds snared in a net on these hills. 2 He had seen the locusts eating all the herbage, and the land left des- olate. 3 These experiences wrought themselves into the language of his message to the men of his time. Follow on the map of Palestine (Map 11), the road running southward from Jerusalem, and four- teen miles beyond Bethlehem you come to Hebron among the mountains of Judah. We shall look at it first from the east, standing at the spot marked 39. Remember while you stand there that Bethlehem and Jerusalem are off at your right. 1 Amos i:i, vii:i4. 3 Amos vii:i, 2. 2 Amos iii:4, 5. Positions 3S, 39. Maps !£, 11. 124 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Position 39. Hebron, the home of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from the east Do you know that this is one of the three or four oldest cities in the world? It was standing in the days of Abraham, nearly four thousand years ago, and has maintained an existence ever since. It rises terrace-like upon the hill, and is compactly built, like most Oriental cities. Among those crowded buildings are several fairly prosperous Mohamme- dan factories where leather bottles and glass beads are made for the Syrian trade. Do you notice on the right a building somewhat like a castle, with a tower at the corner nearest to us, and another tower, not quite so high, at the further corner? According to local tradition, it con- tains the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 1 But none save Mohammedans are allowed to enter it; and even to approach it will expose us to some risk of our lives. The Moslems in this city are the most bigoted and fierce in all Palestine. Some friends of the writer who entered the city and went as near as they were able to go to the mosque, were pelted with stones and dirt and filth, and on their return to camp found their clothes covered with the saliva that had been spat on their backs! Those boys watching us on the stone fences would stone us out of the region, if they dared. The tree on the left is a fig tree ; those on the slopes of the hill you will recognize as olives. In Genesis we are told that at this very place .Abraham pitched his tent, and built his altar — for the altar is prominent in every encampment of that 1 Gen. xxiii:i-io; Gen. xlix: 29 - 3 i. Position 30- Map 11. HEBRON 125 grand old patriarch. 1 Here he received news that his nephew, Lot, had been carried away a captive by the marauding kings from the east; and from this place he led his little army on a swift march far northward to Dan, where he made a night attack, scattered the invaders, and recaptured their prison- ers and booty. 2 More than any other place, Hebron seems to have been a home to Abraham ; and here, you know, he bought his family burial cave, which, the Moslems claim, is to be found beneath yonder mosque. Step across the gulf of a thousand years, and you find Hebron David’s capital, while he reigned for seven years as King of Judah, before the throne of Israel was tendered to him. 3 Absalom’s conspiracy was matured in that city, 4 and there he was crowned for a brief, inglorious reign, ending in an ignoble death across the Jordan. Now let us walk around to the other side of the town, and look down upon the mosque. Position 40. The mosque of Machpelah, the tradi- tional burial-place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob We are now looking in a southeasterly direction. The most distant hills seem to be near Beersheba. This must, indeed, have been a familiar prospect to Abraham and his family, as well as to hundreds of those who came after him, for we can be assured that the outlines of those distant hills were practi- cally the same then as now. How many times they turned their eyes down this valley in early 8 II Sam. iiti-4, 11. 4 II Sam. xv.7-12; xviii:9*i7. 1 Gen. xiii : 1 8. 2 Gen. xiv:i-i 6 . Positions 39 , 40 . Map 11 . 126 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND morning and at noontime beneath the same sun that casts its shadows here. But notice more closely this wall, for it is all that you will ever see of the building, even though you should journey halfway around the world to visit it. There is, perhaps, no cave on all the earth that the archaeologist and the Bible student so greatly long to explore as the one that lies within these walls, for legend declares that the cave beneath this mosque contains the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not more than half a dozen Europeans in as many centuries have been able to penetrate within those walls. As you can see, the upper tiers of masonry are very different from the lower. You can also observe that the lower courses have pilasters or buttresses at reg- ular intervals. You can scarcely see that those lower stones are dressed along the edges, as we saw them in the wall of the Temple (Position 21). The upper wall is modern, built since the Mohammedan occupation ; the lower is very ancient, perhaps of the Herodian age. They tell us that the monuments over the tombs of the patriarchs are not under yon- der pointed roof, but in the court in front of it. The real sepulchers are said to be in a cave under the tombs that are shown, just as in our cemeteries square sarcophagi stand above the graves which they represent. Plow far back into the world’s annals the associa- tions of this old tomb take us! More than a thou- sand years before Homer sang, or before Rome was founded ; a time when Babylon, even, was young, when Egypt only of the nations was old — then it was, we are told, that Abraham bought this Position 40. Map 11. MACHPELAH 127 ground, and buried in its cave his wife, Sarah . 1 The stone was rolled away again and again, when Abraham himself was buried there by Isaac and Ish- mael ; 2 when Isaac was laid there by Jacob and Esau ; 3 and for the last time when Jacob was placed there by his twelve sons . 4 The old wanderer was laid here at his own dying request . 5 * * “Not where the Pharaohs lie with incense wreathed Round awful galleries grim with shapes of wrath, Hawk-headed, vulture-pinioned, serpent-wreathed, Hued like an Indian moth. “But lay him where from forest or green slope To Mamre's cave the low wind breatheth balm, Chanteth a litany of immortal hope, Singeth a funeral psalm. “Bear him, ye bearers, lay him down at last In still Machpelah down by Leah’s side. On the pale bridegroom shimmering light is cast Laid by that awful bride.” 8 For Ponitlon 41, main tour, nee page 132. * We will pause at another historic place in this old city of Hebron. Position 40a. The King’s Pool, ancient reservoir in the heart of Hebron We are looking upon the larger of two reservoirs in Hebron, both very ancient: for the supply of water and its care were always of the highest consideration in the building of a town. This pool measures forty-four yards in each direction. Much of the history in connection with Hebron was enacted near this place. Probably it was here that, after the death of Saul, David was recognized as king by the men of Judah, T and by Simeon, Judah’s nearest neighbor, and practically united with it. Here, 1 Genesis xxiii:i-2o. 2 Gen. xxv:7*io. 3 Gen. xxxv ’. 29 . 4 Gen. 1:1-13. 8 Gen. xlix:28-32. • W. Alexander. 7 II Sam. ii : x -4. * For Supplementary Tour only. Position* 40, 40a. Map 11. 128 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND after the murder of Saul’s son and heir, Esh-baal (prob- ably nicknamed “Ishbosheth,” i. e. — worthless fellow), Da- vid caused the two assassins to be hanged, when they ex- pected a reward for bringing him the head of his rival. 1 As this pool is in the center of the city, it was probably at this place, also, that Absalom was proclaimed king, for his brief and inglorious reign. 2 You see those camels standing by the pool? They may have come from a long journey through the desert, for here, during three thou- sand years, caravans have halted, and thirsty animals have been refreshed. * We go out of the city of Hebron, and walk about two miles to the northwest for our next position. Map n marks the spot 40b. Position 40b. Ancient tree, traditionally known as Abraham’s Oak, near Hebron For many centuries this ancient tree has been held in reverence by Mohammedans and Christians alike, as the sole remaining monarch of the grove where Abraham pitched his tent, nearly four thousand years ago. 8 The tradition connecting Abraham with this tree is traced back to the time of Jerome, in the fourth century, and it is without doubt much older. We are told that the Emperor Constantine (about 330 A. D.) suppressed heathen sacrifices and rites around the tree, so the recog- nition of it must have been earlier than the Christian era. It is now under the care of the Russian Church, and protected by the iron fence. Formerly its branches reached out widely, but old age has come upon it, and its life is failing. The trunk upon which we are looking is said to be thirty-two feet around. Can you not see, with the inward eye, the black tent of Abraham standing under this ancient tree (or under a similar tree from which it has sprung); and the patri- arch at his tent door welcoming the three angels in the guise of men, while Sarah peers from behind the cur- tain? 4 A view like this makes wonderfully real those old Bible stories. 1 II Sam. iv:5-i2; I Chron. viii 133. 3 Genesis xiii:i8. 2 II Sam. xv:io. 4 Genesis xviiin-13. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 40a, 40b. Map 31. HEBRON 129 * Between Hebron and the Dead Sea lies a great waste, desert land of mountains and gorges. Map 11 marks 40c, our next position, in that region. Position 40c. A Bedouin camp in the wilderness where Saul pursued David We are looking at a sight often found among these desolate mountains, the encampment of an Arab family, who have pitched their tent in a ravine. One cannot help wondering how they find sustenance on these bar- ren hills and valleys: but Arabs live where any other people would starve. And they approach nearer and nearer to the cultivated sections and the villages, ex- pecting to pick up — perhaps to steal — some of the fruits of the field. The head of the family is this man on the right carrying his long gun. No matter how small the company, he is the sheik or chief of his clan. David’s tent, while he was wandering over these regions, was not unlike this, made of goat’s-hair cloth, woven very closely, and shedding rain, but with roof so low that one can scarcely stand upright. You see how easy it would be to hide in these des- erts, concealed under the shadow of the hills. That ledge under the rocks is not actually a cave, but it may suggest the caves often found among these mountains, sometimes wholly natural and sometimes partly hewn out of the soft limestone. While not at this place, it was near here that Saul went into a cave, not knowing that in its darkness David and his men were watching him. 1 He lay down for a mid-day sleep, so common with all classes in these lands, and on awaking knew not that a fragment had been cut from his long robe — just such a garment as that worn by this sheik. That gun might almost take the place of Saul’s spear. It would be easy for David to stand quite near on yonder ledge, waving the fragment of Saul’s cloak, safe from pursuit on tho^e steep mountain walls; for David knew every path, while Saul was a stranger in the land. * Westward from Hebron — to speak accurately, a little north of west — at a point about fourteen miles from that city, just on the edge of the Shephelah, or foot hills, we find our next position. Map 11 shows the spot where * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 40<\ 40(1. Mnp 11. 1 1 Sam. xxiv. 130 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND we are to stand (4od) and the space over which we are to look. Position 4od. Hill site of ancient Mareshah, southwest beyond modern Beit Jibrin That town lying at the foot of the hills is Beit Jibrin, the ancient Eleutheropolis, mentioned by Josephus, on the border between the tribe-land of Judah and the Philistine country. Beyond the village you see the lofty mound crowning the hill. That is now called Tell Sandahannah; and it occupies the site of Mareshah, where, according to the story in Chronicles, the army of King Asa of Judah met the host of the Ethiopians. You remember the story — how the news of this overwhelming invasion came to him; his prayer; and his brave summons to his people to go forth and meet the enemies . 1 The battle was fought and the victory won in a valley between these ranges of hills; the field where now olive-trees are growing was on that day covered with the soldiery — first of the Egyp- tians and Ethiopians swarming up the hills, then of the men of Judah pursuing them after the victory. Another name connected with this region is that of the prophet Micah , 2 who lived a hundred years after Asa. His home was at Moresheth-Gath — which is equivalent to “Mareshah. near Gath.” From yonder heights he may have watched armies passing and repassing. With pro- phetic eye he saw the Assyrians soon to advance over these hills on their way to Jerusalem, and he sought to prepare his people by a warning, which might lead them to es- cape through a social and moral reformation the doom that fell upon so many other nations. * Let us take our next stand upon that commanding height of Mareshah, and look off westward, i. e., a little more toward the country which has been ahead at our right. Position 4oe. The Shephelah and Philistine plain west from Tell Sandahannah We are now standing upon the lofty mound which was the highest point of our last view — Tell Sandahannah, the ancient Mareshah. This is a typical landscape on the bor- 1 II. Chronicles xiv:8-is. * For Supplementary Tour only. 2 Micah i : i- 1 s. Positions 40«1, 40e. Map 11. THE SHEPHELAH 131 der of Judah. To the westward lies a narrow plain, be- yond it some hills, and beyond the hills a wider plain, stretching away to the Mediterranean Sea. The sea is beyond the limit of our vision; but the wide area is the sea-coast plain, in early times held by the Philistines, the most formidable enemies of Israel. You remember how often they overran and oppressed the Israelites in the days of Eli , 1 and Samuel , 2 and Saul . 3 While David was hiding from Saul, the people of that plain were his friends; and, as king of the one tribe, Judah, David doubt- less paid tribute to Achish of Gath. But, when David became king over all Israel, the Philistines at once be- came his enemies, and fought battle after battle to hold their supremacy ; 4 David was victorious in the end, drove the Philistines out of his dominion, took their capital, and made this hitherto haughty people his servants . 5 How a hundred years of history rise before us, as we look across that sea-coast plain! And those hills which rise in the middle distance — they are the Shephelah, or foot-hills, between the moun- tain region and the sea-coast plain — the field of many a battle between Philistines and Israelites, for they were de- batable land, sometimes held by one people, sometimes by the other. That Arab stands on the border of the mountain re- gion, the backbone of the land, held by the Israelites as their home from the days of Joshua to those of Christ. Up the valley before us may have marched the armies of the Egyptians under Rameses the Second, while Moses was a boy in the palace, going northward for their great battle with the Hittites, of which the record stands graven on a temple wall in Egypt. Another Pharaoh went with his army up this valley, or some other valley near at hand, and on the plain of Esdraelon met, defeated and killed Josiah, the chivalric young king of Judah ; 5 but came down that valley again in disorder, after a defeat by the mighty Nebuchadnezzar . 1 Our general map of Palestine (Map 11) shows directly west of Hebron and only two or three miles from the seashore the old town of Gaza, the south- X I Samuel iv:i-i8. 6 II Sam. viii : 1 . 2 I Samuel vii:3-i4. ® II Kings xxiii:28-3o. 3 T Sam. xiii : s*7, xxxin-13. 7 Jeremiah xlvin-12. 4 II Sam. v:i7-25. l’o.sl t ions 40e, 41. Map 11. 132 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND ernmost place of military and commercial impor- tance on the old seacoast route between this western part of Asia and the northeastern kingdom of Africa. We will take our forty-first position on a hill near that town, and look off, as the spreading lines indi- cate, toward the northwest. Position 41. Gaza, lowland stronghold of the Phil- istines, from the southeast If this man with the broad girdle and the baggy trousers of the Orient were not before us, we might almost imagine that we were looking upon an Eng- lish farm, with its fields divided by hedges, its thrifty, cultivated ground, and its well-kept orchard. But a moment’s inspection shows that we are still in Palestine. Those hedges are of the prickly pear, so often seen in this land. The fruit, though eaten by the natives, is not very pleasant to the taste of a stranger. The trees so abundant in the landscape are olive trees ; and this is one of the oldest olive orchards in old Palestine ; some of those before us are estimated to be a thousand years old, and still bear fruit. You recall that line in the Psalms about trees in the temple courts continuing fruitful in old age. 1 No other tree fits the statement so well as the olive. That city in the distance is Gaza, which lies about two miles from the Mediterranean Sea, protected from attack on its western side by high sand-dunes, easily fortified. You note the minarets, showing that its inhabitants (35,000 in number, according to one recent authority — 20,000, according to another) are mostly Mohammedans. Gaza is on the south 1 Psalms lii :8. Position 41. }!ap 11. GAZA 133 what Damascus is on the north — the center of trade and travel over the desert. It lies on the main, road between Egypt and Syria, traveled through untold centuries. The armies of Seti, of Rameses, of Alex- ander, of the Crusaders and of Napoleon must have marched across this landscape. Soon after the conquest of Canaan by the Israel- ites, about 1230 B. C., this city appears to have been the head of the Philistine league of five cities, of which Gath was the northernmost and Gaza the southernmost. Nearly all the story of Samson cen- ters in this city. Over these fields may have run Samson’s foxes, with torches tied to their tails, set- ting the harvest fields on fire. 1 You remember how the Philistines locked the gates of yonder town upon the hero; and how he carried them away, posts and bars with them. Expositors think that this very hill, where the Arab stands, was the place where he left them. 2 Near yonder city dwelt the woman who enticed him to tell her the secret of his strength ; 3 and there it was that he pulled down the temple upon the Philistines, slaying more in his death than he had slain in his life. 4 The New Testament gives us only one mention of Gaza, but that is interesting. Somewhere near this town, upon the desert road, Philip, the evangelist, met the Ethiopian treasurer, riding in his chariot and reading the prophecy of Isaiah ; and, in some wayside stream, not far from here, the dark-skinned nobleman was baptized. Tradition tells us that he returned to his home, a thousand miles distant, 4 Judges xvi:23-3i. 6 Acts viii .'26-40. 1 Judges xv 14, 5. 2 Judges xvi:i-3. 3 Judges xvi :4 -i8. I’o.sition 41. Map 11. 134 TRAVELLING IN THE 1I0LY LAND up the Nile, and there founded the Church of Abys- sinia. From here we turn to the northeast. Trace on Map ii the distance of about thirty-two miles from Gaza, and you find between Socoh and Azekah, at the valley of Elah, our next position, seventeen miles due west of Bethlehem. Position 42. Scene of Goliath’s defeat, Valley of Elah That elevation where the half-naked youth stands is one of the foot-hills of the Shephelah ; and the slopes in the distance are on the edge of the moun- tain region. We might take the boy to represent David , 1 only that he is on the wrong side of the valley ; for the broad plain, with the road running across it, was the camping ground of the Philistines, who were a lowland people; the hills beyond were occupied by the Israelites, who belonged to the mountains, and fought their best battles on the high ground. Do you see the torrent-bed, on its winding way at the foot of the hills? From that stream David chose the five smooth stones for his sling — though he made use of only one of them. Michael An- gelo, in his famous statue of David, represents the young hero as undraped, just like the upper part of the body of the boy standing near us ; but, if David had entered upon the field in that condition, the ene- my would have detected the sling upon his shoulder. No, David probably went to the fight dressed as a shepherd, with a cloak — under which were con- cealed his sling and a stone within it — and a long 1 I Samuel xviin-51. Position* 41, 42. Map 11. VALE OF ELAH *35 shepherd’s staff in his hand, which he swung to and fro, as if it were to be his only weapon. Now, fill that plain with the tents of the Philis- tines, and their warriors, standing in a mass on this side of the brook; let the sloping hills yonder be thronged with the Israelite army. The giant, Go- liath, the only man in full armor, with helmet and breastplate and spear, walks up and down, calling for a champion to come and fight, while his attend- ant stands before him with a long shield, ready to ward off arrow or spear. In all that army of the Israelites there is only one who uses his brains, and that is the young shepherd boy. He sees at a glance that the Philistine is not to be overthrown with a sword or a spear — he is too well armed, too big, and, moreover, there stands his armor-bearer with a shield. He can be over- thrown only by a sling-stone, which must be hurled from just the right distance, and must not miss, for the slinger will not have a second chance. Then, too, the giant must be off his guard, and not realize his danger — hence the brandished staff and the con- cealed sling. The stone is slung, and buries itself in the giant’s forehead, the only unprotected place in his body. He falls, stunned, but not slain. In the momentary pause, David, who has not for an in- stant lost his self-command, rushes forward, pulls out the giant’s own sword, and beheads his fallen foe. In that hour David shows all the qualities that will one day make him king — courage, self- reliance, resourcefulness and energy at the crucial moment. From that day men say, “Here is the coming Shepherd of Israel.” Position 42. Map IL I36 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND For Position 43 we will cross the Shephelah and go up through the mountain region to a place about three miles east of Jerusalem, on a slope of Olivet. Position 43. Sheikh cl Rachid and his escort — most famous Bedouins of Palestine This is “the road that goeth down from Jerusa- lem to Jericho/’ where the traveller in the parable of the Good Samaritan fell among thieves : 1 and the groups of people before us may be lineal descend- ants of those robbers, for they are in the same pro- fession, which in the East is a perfectly honorable business. The nearest man in full oriental costume is Sheikh el Rachid, the Arab chief, whose tribe has for generations been in control of the wilderness of Judea, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. He is a perfect gentleman after the Arab type, of urbane manners, but every traveller who would pass over that route, until within a very few years, must en- gage a “guard” from him, under penalty of being robbed, and perhaps murdefed. He simply consid- ers that this region has been in the hands of his forefathers for untold generations, rightfully belong- ing to his clan ; and he regards it as right that trav- ellers passing through should pay him toll or trib- ute, if they are to pass through peacefully. Do you notice the medals that he wears, presented to him by distinguished people who have received his es- cort? Those long lances look formidable, and in earlier times were employed in war; but now they are used only on parade and in feats of horseman- ship. The building on the hill is the headquarters of the Sheikh when he comes from the desert to 'Luke x:3o-37. Position 43. Map 2. BEDOUINS 137 the vicinity of Jerusalem. He has of late retired from business, not merely because he is very wealthy, but mainly for the reason that, since the new road has been built, guard-houses have been established and manned, so that his occupation as a collector of blackmail no longer thrives. There is no doubt that David, in the days of his wandering, was a chieftain somewhat according to the type of Sheikh el Rachid. He exacted trib- ute from the farmers and villagers, as the price of protection from robbers — and in our time his own followers would be so considered. After the sud- den death of Nabal, 1 you remember, Abigail became David’s wife, bringing with her all her former hus- band’s wealth, which made David the most power- ful Sheikh in the region, and greatly aided him in obtaining the rule over his own tribe of Judah. For Position 44, main tour, see page 140. *Turn to the map of Jerusalem and its environs (Map 2) and find the location of Mar Saba, a famous convent, which we shall pause to see. The spot is marked 43a, and the green V-lines show that you are to look across the brook Kedron to hills on its northern side. Position 43a. The lonely convent of Mar Saba in the Wilderness of Judea This solitary figure before us stands on one side of a mighty gorge, and on the other side, right by the edge of a terrific precipice, hangs the convent. The brook Kedron flows through this deep valley far below, on its way to the Dead Sea. Do you see those five tall but- tresses leading up to a dome and a cupola? They are on the wall of the church which contains the tomb of St. Saba, a monk of the fifth and sixth centuries A. D., who * For Supplementary Tour only. Positirnt) 43, 43a. Map 2. 1 1 Samuel xxv. 138 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND founded his monastery in this place, the loneliest in all the land. Hundreds of years ago a monk living in this very con- vent wrote, in Latin, a hymn which we all know to-day in an English translation: “Art thou weary, art thou languid, Art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith One, and coming Be at rest.” There is no structure other than Bedouins’ tents be- tween here and the vicinity of Jerusalem, about ten miles up this same valley. That massive wall around the con- vent on two sides has kept off many an attack from the Bedouins of the desert, who have often tried to rob the monks of their treasures. We can see the road climbing the steep hill outside the highest wall. That is the only way of approach to the monastery. The road creeps down the cliff on the other side of the wall out of sight from our point of view; the entrance is through that tower to the left of the cupola. We can just see the top of the arch at the portal. Men are admitted as guests if they arrive before sunset, and they may obtain good en- tertainment; but women are shut out, because, you know, a woman once made trouble in the Garden of Eden! In the little courtyards here and there through those groups of buildings are fig trees, on which the fruit ripens earlier than anywhere else in the land, from the fierce heat of the sun on these rocks. This monastery, centuries ago a place of high sanctity, has of late become a sort of penal colony, where refractory monks of the Greek Church are kept under prison discipline. Do you notice the little balcony overhanging the precipice close beside the dome? One moment’s view from that dizzy height suffices for most visitors. Unless one has steady nerves his head swims, as he looks down into the valley, where the brook Kedron rolls over the rocks. We visit this place solely on account of its romantic, strange appearance, for it has no connection with the story of the Bible. * We will look at one more landscape in the land of Ju- dah, one that is typical of most of the region west of the Dead Sea. Notice the point to which we go, on the map * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 43a, 43b. Maps 2, 11. WILDERNESS OF JUDEA 139 showing the whole of Palestine (Map 11). It is marked 43b, and the green lines tell us that we shall be looking a little south of east, in the direction of the Dead Sea. Position 43b. Picturesque Palestine, the Wilderness of the Scapegoat We are in the land of Jeshimon, or Solitude. Jerusa- lem is about six miles away at our right, i. e., at the south- west. What a wild waste, a chaos of mountain and val- ley! Not a brook rolls through these ravines to turn the desert into a garden. Even Arabs dare not pitch their tent in such a desolation, for they — who can live almost anywhere — cannot find even a wretched subsistence here. The solitary Arab before us, with his musket on his back, is a Bedouin guard, who is indispensable for any trip into the wilderness. In the distance you can see the moun- tains of Moab beyond the Dead Sea. This is part of the hill country of Judea. You remem- ber how it receives its name — the Wilderness of the Scapegoat. On the great day of the Atonement, in the fall of the year, the high priest chose two goats. 1 One was slain, and his blood was sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies within the veil. The other goat was led out of the Temple and the city to “a land not inhabited,” and there was left to die. He was supposed, in the figurative speech of the Orient, to carry away the sins of the people into the wilderness, and never to bring them back. No doubt David looked on this very landscape more than once in his wandering while a fugitive from the jeal- ousy of Saul. 2 We call to mind the shepherd, the poet, the leader, whose harp may have been tuned on these very hills. Those years of wandering were a bitter experience to David, but they were a discipline to his character, for in the hard school of adversity he learned how to reign. We may associate another and a greater name than David with this wilderness. In some such region as this — perhaps even now in the field of vision — our Lord fasted and was tempted. 3 It was not strange that after the sud- den and overwhelming consciousness of his personality and his mission came upon him at his baptism, he should go forth into a lonely desert place to calm his spirit and 3 Matt, iv : 1 - 1 1. 1 Leviticus xvin-26. 2 I Samuel xxiv:i, 2 . Position 43b. Map 11« 140 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND to meditate upon his work. Nor was it strange that he should fast; for in such an intensity of feeling he might forget the body and its needs, even for days and days. And the first temptation was thoroughly in accord with his surroundings; when tension gave way, and hunger came upon him, and he realized that he was in the desert with no means of supplying his bodily needs, naturally the suggestion came to him to use this newly possessed power of working miracles for the support of his own life. How the solemn and awful loneliness of nature harmonized with the deeper solitariness of his own soul! He in this Wilderness of the Scapegoat was the One who bore our sins afar, so far that they return no more to burden our hearts or to defile our conscience. Turn to our special map of the Jericho district. Now find on the map (Map 6) the brook Cherith (called to-day the Wady Kelt). It enters the Jor- dan Valley a little to the south of Jericho, and in its progress down the mountains has hollowed out one of the most wonderful chasms in the whole country, torn as the land is with deep valleys. Let us pause on our way through the mountains to look at it. Position 44. The marvelous gorge of Brook Cher- ith, and old convent You can almost hear the echo of the Arab’s gun that is just sending out its cloud of smoke ! How clearly the strata of the rocks appear in yonder cliff! Look at that convent, nestled in the crevice! Do you notice how closely the dome over its chapel hugs the overhanging rocks? Can you trace the path up from the valley to the convent, and the ^entrance to it at the foot of the cliff? See that cave hollowed out just above! If Elijah sought a refuge there from the wrath of King Ahab, he was Position** 43b, 44. Maps 11, G. THE BROOK CHERITH I4I well hidden . * 1 How suddenly that mighty prophet bursts upon the view, with his message of warn- ing, and then as suddenly departs to his hiding place! Can you not picture him sitting alone in yonder cave, sheltered by the mighty walls around, feeding upon the scanty dole brought by the ravens ! See him bending over the brook, drinking from his hands, hollowed out into a cup! How he watches that stream, his only supply, sink into narrower channels day after day. If ever lived a man of mighty faith, that man was Elijah ; and his faith was nourished by his prayer, for he dwelt in fel- lowship with the Highest. We may also associate with this place the Elijah of the New Testament — John the Baptist, like Eli- jah in his manner of life, his garb, and his wilder- ness home. While no especial place in this valley is definitely connected with John’s brief career, yet, as he dwelt part of the time in the wilderness of Judea, and his ministry was in the Jordan Valley beside the river, he must often have climbed up and down these precipitous paths by the brook Cherith, meditating upon his mission and his message. In some such cave as that in the cliff -side, John the Baptist doubtless passed many a night. For Position 45, main tour, see page 143. * For our next viewpoint we move a few miles east- ward from Wady Kelt, to the site of Jericho, which was about six miles north of the Dead Sea, and a less dis- tance west of the river Jordan. Find on the map of Jeri- cho the number 44a, and notice the direction of the lines showing the boundaries of our vision. 1 1 Kings xvii:i-6. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 44, 44a. Map 0. 142 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Position 44a. Jordan Valley and distant Moab, east from old Jericho-Jerusalem road You see just below us a broad, smooth highway; that is the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, followed by travelers, pilgrims, and wandering Arabs from time immemorial. You notice that it crosses the plain and extends toward the white line which marks the river Jordan. When Lot parted from Abram, almost twenty centuries before Christ, with his flocks and herds he went down this trail (doubt- less old even in his day) to seek a new home on yonder plain . 1 Not far distant, perhaps in the field of our vision, perhaps a little outside of it, stood Sodom, the city of the evil name and the terrible fate . 2 When the Israelites un- der Joshua came to besiege Jericho, they trod that path, from the river toward this place . 3 Over that road walked Elijah and Elisha, toward the river where the waters part- ed as the old prophet smote them with his mantle; and over it at the close of that day Elisha walked back alone, heir to the mantle and of his master’s power . 4 When Joseph and Mary came from Nazareth to Bethle- hem, they probably travelled down the Roman road in the Jordan valley, and then up this path on their way to Jerusalem and Bethlehem . 5 Some twelve years later they travelled the same route with their Boy, showing the fa- mous places and telling again the old stories of Israelite history . 8 That is the road down which the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho walked when he fell among thieves, and was cared for by the good Samaritan/ What pictures of the past rise before us as we look on that road and the plain which it crosses! When Abram and Lot looked at yonder plain, it was, as we are told, like the garden of the Lord, because care- fully irrigated and cultivated . 8 But for a thousand years, i. e., during the Saracen and Turkish rule, it has been neg- lected; the irrigating ditches have filled up, and the region has become a barren waste. It is now just begin- ning to return to something of its former prosperity, and, a generation from the present time, it will doubtless again blossom. Those hills, dimly seen in the distance, belong to the land of Moab, occupied in ancient days by the descendants 1 Genesis xiiiM-13. 2 Genesis xix. 3 Joshua vi. 4 II Kings ii : 5- 1 5. 5 Luke ii 14. * Luke ii:4i, 4 2. 7 Luke x i2 5, 37. 8 Gen. xiii:io. Position 44a. Map 6. JORDAN VALLEY M 3 of Lot. You recall the story of Naomi and Ruth. They came from those mountains, crossed the Jordan at the old fording-place, and walked over that road up to these precipitous hills of Judah, on their way to Bethlehem . 1 Now let us pause just above the borders of Jer- icho plain, take our seat upon the ruins of an an- cient aqueduct, and look out upon the plain. Con- sult our special map of the Jericho district (Map 6). It tells us that from Position 45 we shall be looking southeast, across the northern end of the Dead Sea and to the mountains at the east of the Jordan. Position 45. The plain of the Jordan, southeast from the ruins of ancient Jericho What a panorama is this spread out before us ! Yonder on the right we can see the head of the Dead Sea, and beyond it the long line of the hills of Moab. There is the Jordan, after its long wan- dering finding rest in the sea. Can you see the eastern bank of the river, here and there touched by the sunlight? See the once fruitful plain of the Jordan with only stunted trees and bushes growing upon it. Do you notice where the plain rises nearer us, into a higher plateau, over which a path runs? There stood the Old Testament city of Jericho. This part of an old aqueduct on which the men are resting was probably here in Christ’s time, as its foundations can be traced out over the plain to the site of the New Testament Jericho, which (as you will see by the map) is in the extreme right of our view. The building stones of the later city have been so completely removed by Bedouins (for 1 Ruth 1 : 6 - 22 . Positions 44a, 4o. Map 6. 144 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND use in modern structures) that only traces of the foundations, level with the ground, can be found. To the left in the distance are the few buildings that make up modern Jericho. We wonder what those two Arabs are talking about. We may be sure that it is not what we are recalling — the mighty scenes that were enacted on that broad terrace at the foot of the mountain. Old Jericho rises on that plain, with walls defying the attack of Joshua . 1 He cannot stop to lay siege to the city and to starve it into surrender, for that would give his enemies in the mountain region time to combine against him. The walls must be taken by assault, but it is an assault such as the art of war has never seen before or since. Can you not see the army of Israel marching around those de- voted walls, while from a window floats a scarlet cord swaying in the breeze ? 2 We see the sudden attack and destruction of the city. We see that plain lying desolate, as desolate as it lies to-day, un- til, five hundred and thirty years after Joshua’s curse, its walls and gates arise once more, built on new-made graves . 3 Who are those two stately fig- ures that we see walking together down yonder path toward the river? They are Elijah, the de- stroyer of the old, and Elisha, the builder of the new; and yonder by those banks of Jordan waits the fiery chariot that shall part them . 4 Nine cen- turies more, and we look down on another scene at the gate of Jericho . 5 What is that throng coming up from the plain? Who is that man climbing a 1 Joshua vi:i. 2 Joshua ii:i8; Joshua vi:n-i6. 3 Joshua vi:26; 1 Kings xvi:33, 34. * II Kings ii:4-i2. 6 Luke xviii:35; xix:i-io; Mark x:46. 1’osition 45. Map 6. PLAIN OF THE JORDAN 145 sycamore tree to see a Stranger in the center of that crowd? What blind beggar is that crying out by the wayside, and rushing forward with such eagerness that he leaves his garment? What face is that which looks up at Zaccheus in the tree, and down at Bartimeus by the gate, with an invitation to each? Joshua, Rahab, Hiel, Elisha, Zaccheus, Bartimeus, Jesus — these are the forms that rise to our view as we look down on the desolate site of Jericho ! For Position 46, main tour, gee page 146. * We will go down the mountainside and stand on another elevation on the southeast, facing toward the mountains of Judah. We shall have the Jericho of to- day directly before us. See how Position 45a is marked on the Jericho map. Position 45a. Modem Jericho and its gardens, with tra- ditional Mount of Temptation at the northwest This village just in front of us is Eriha, the modern suc- cessor of Jericho. You note the similarity of names — Jericho and Eriha. One building, you observe, rises above the low roofs of the town, and its name suggests mod- ernness — Jordan Hotel! Look at the squalid, clay-roofed houses in the front, partly for cattle, partly for human habitations! It was upon no such homes as these that Jesus looked, when he visited the place, for it was then a prosperous city, and not long before had been the resi- dence of King Herod the Great. Eriha does not even oc- cupy the exact site of the ancient Jericho. Can you see at the foot of those hills a plateau or elevated space? That was the place where Jericho stood in Bible times. But those mountains remain, looking down upon the ruins and the hovels, just as they looked down upon the old city of palm trees. 1 There are few palm trees at Jericho now, and few throughout Palestine, though the palm was anciently one of the emblems of the land. Look closely at yonder mountain — Mount Quarantania. The word sounds a little like “quarantine,” which is derived from its 1 Dcut. xxxiv:3. *For Supplementary Tour only. Position* 4o, 4,*»a. Map 6. 146 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND name, and means “forty days.” Tradition says that the forty days’ fast of Jesus after his baptism was observed on that mountain, and that from its summit the tempter showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them . 1 But there is no evidence except tradition in favor of the locality. Really this mountain was, in the time of Christ, too near a city, and too much visited by men — even though its visitors were mostly robbers — to be the “wilderness” of the fasting and temptation. Yet the height before us calls up a long line of events in Bible story upon which it looked. It saw the host of Israel march across the river Jordan and pitch their camp some- where on this plateau . 2 It saw that host in solemn pro- cession walk around the city walls, led by a company of priests blowing trumpets of rams’ horns . 8 It beheld that ancient city falling before the attack of the desert in- vaders, while the shouts of Israel rose to the sky. It has witnessed the changes that have swept across this plain in the centuries of Old Testament history, and it looks down upon its desolation now. Perhaps it will yet behold the plain once more watered and cultivated as the garden of the Lord and a new city arising in place of the old wastes. Find our next position (46) on the Jericho map, and then look at the results of recent excavations upon the site of old Jericho. Position 46. Ruins of Jericho, showing buildings and city wall You see that deep trench, directly in front, and curving toward the left? That has been made with great care by German excavators, in order not to interfere with ancient foundations, and it follows the course of the old Canaanite wall. On the left we see cellars and the lower courses of walls of houses and public buildings ; on the right the wall of the city. Can you see that the lower parts of the 1 Matt. iv:8. 3 Joshua vin-20. 2 Joshua iv:i9. Positions 45a, 40. Map 0. JERICHO 147 wall are solid and strong, while the upper portions are of clay? That difference shows that the ancient builders made the better city, and that the more recent work was of a feeble and temporary charac- ter — just as we see everywhere in the East. Old Jericho was an important place, for it stood at the head of the sea and the foot of the mountains, com- manding the roads to the north and eastward across the desert. Often destroyed, it was as often rebuilt, for it was needed in trade and travel. You remem- ber that, after its destruction by Joshua, a curse was pronounced upon the man who should rebuild its walls ; 1 yet, in not more than two generations, as “the city of palm-trees,” it became the capital of a Moabite kingdom, and its ruler was lord of the southern part of Israel . 2 Those trenches and pits, upon which we are look- ing, have for the Bible student a deeper interest than many more beautiful sights ; for they are the veritable memorials of the ancient city. At that very wall Joshua may have been gazing when “the captain of the Lord’s host” appeared to him . 3 Around it marched for seven days the army of Is- rael, until that mighty shout went up, which was the signal for a united attack . 4 You have wondered, perhaps, what was meant by Joshua’s curse upon the man who should rebuild it, and in what way that curse was fulfilled. In the light of discoveries made in other cities — notably at Gezer — it is now believed that Iliel the Bethelite, when he began rebuilding the wall, offered up in sacrifice his oldest son, and, when he finished, his 1 Joshua vi:26, 27. 3 Joshua v:i3-is. 2 Judges iii : 12- 14. 4 Joshua vi:2o, 21. Position 46. Map 6. J48 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND youngest for such offerings were not uncommon among the Canaanites. Who knows but that the pit on the left may have been the cellar under the house of the rich tax cob lector, Zaccheus, who entertained our Lord in this very city? 2 We can now get a closer view of the mountains on the west of Jericho. Look closely and you will see that they are pierced in many places with caves. Those caves are very ancient, some of them as old as Christ’s time; and, during the ages of monasti- cism, were the homes of hermits, who spent their lives in praying and fasting. For Position 47, main tour, see page 149. * Let us go outside of the city, a little to the north, and take our next position beside the spring which has in every age supplied water to Jericho. Map 6 marks the spot 46a, and shows how far we are to see in the dis- tance. Position 46a. The fountain of Elisha, miraculously freshened by the prophet Here certainly is something that connects itself directly with the Bible story. Of all the requisites for living in the East, the well or the fountain of every city is apt to be the most enduring. There is generally one water sup- ply for the town, and to it the women resort, with their jars borne on head or shoulder. Now, this is the only good water to be found anywhere near either ancient or modern Jericho. It is not a reservoir, but a large and copious natural spring, bubbling up from the foot of the mountain. The natives call it the Sultan’s Spring, as if to express its supremacy over all the water on the plain. As this is the only source of any consequence in this re- gion which could have supplied ancient Jericho, there is little reason to doubt that it is the spring which, accord- 1 I Kings xvi:34. * For Supplementary Tour only. 2 Luke xix:i-io. Positions 40, 40a. Map 6. FOUNTAIN OF ELISHA 149 ing to the familiar Bible story, Elisha the Prophet healed. Can you not see, in imagination, the prophet standing here, a jar filled with salt in his hand? He sprinkles the salt upon the water — salt, that which has hitherto made the water useless! A wonderful change comes across the fountain; it pours forth bitter water no more, but sweet and fresh; and sweet and fresh it has continued for twenty-seven hundred years since that day. 1 Here is the fountain beside the main road leading up the mountain toward Bethel and Shechem. What countless passers-by — prophets, priests, kings, crusaders — have dipped their jars into this refreshing tide, and have drunk from it! Doubt- less the water that was on the table of Zaccheus, when he entertained our Lord at his house, came from this an- cient spring. Do you remember that King Herod, who slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem, and who vainly strove to slay the infant Christ, passed the last months of his life here at Jericho? He, too, must have drunk from this fountain! You notice that the walls around the pool are modern. In fact, they have been made since 1900, as there has arisen a demand for water from this source for irrigating the plain of the Jordan, and restoring it to its ancient fertility. Thus Elisha’s prophecy may in our times receive another fulfillment. From Jericho we go across the plain, and take our stand on the west bank of the river Jordan, at a point marked 47 on the Jericho map. Position 47. Baptising in the Jordan Does the Jordan look at all as you had expected it to look? How brown and muddy is its current — not at all like the blue waters of Switzerland, or some romantic streams in America ! See the bushes and trees that it has torn away from its banks and carried down its tide! Y T ou remember that the word Jordan means “descender,” and it 1 II Kings ii: 19-22. Positions 4(ln, 47. Map 6. 150 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND earns its name, for it falls more than three thousand feet in a distance of less than one hundred and fifty miles, or more than twenty feet to a single mile. No vessel has ever sailed up or down its current for any distance. One man traversed it with a canoe, rather than in it, for he carried his canoe al- most a quarter of the voyage! It has no romantic dells, nor grassy slopes, and places are few where it can even be seen, much less reached by the trav- eler. Yet this eddying stream before us possesses an interest deeper than that of mere beauty in ap- pearance. To untold millions of people it is a sacred river with holy memories. Thousands of pilgrims every year, at untold sacrifice, come from distant lands to bathe in its waters. Many come to it for the holy rite of baptism, believing that its water will surely wash away their sins. Look how sincere and reverent are the pair standing in the water! To them this is a holy service, whatever it may be to those who witness it from the shore. Yonder Arab, with his sword, is probably the “guard,” who receives blackmail for protecting the pilgrims from his own tribe. Notice the difference of attire on the other standing figures. Do you suppose that the people who thronged around John the Baptist were dressed like these people ? 1 No one can tell to a certainty whether the garb worn in those days throughout Palestine was that now used by Orientals, or that portrayed on the ancient Greek and Roman monuments, or something different from both. These persons upon whom we are now looking have come to this place for baptism, believing that 1 Matt, iii : i-x i. Position 47. Map 6. BAPTISING IN THE JORDAN *5* here or near this place, John baptized the Saviour. That was, indeed, the general belief until not many years ago. Now, however, many hold that the true Bethabara , * 1 where Jesus was baptized, and where soon afterward he gained his earliest disciples, is fifty miles up the river, where there is another “place of the ford.” But, whatever the dress, and whether here or there, John the Baptist sounded forth his message and performed the sacred rite, which represented the putting away of sin and a surrender to the will of God. May not this modern baptism on which we are looking recall to our thoughts that wonder- ful scene when the herald and his long-promised king, John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah, stood together beside this very stream, when the mystic Dove hung in the air, and Jesus heard the heav- enly message: Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But there were great events in Bible story which undoubtedly do belong to this special place. Not far from this spot the Israelites, under Joshua, marched across the dry bed of the river, while the ark of Jehovah, held by the priests, stood in the midst of the valley, and the waters were held back by a great dam thirty miles up-stream . 2 Here the river is several times wider than in most places, and, in its normal condition, shallow enough for a man to wade across. For Position 48, main tour, see page 154. *We will look at one more group of people at this his- toric ford of the Jordan — a company of pilgrims from Egypt . 1 Matt, iii : 1 3- 1 6 ; John i:28-42. * For Supplementary Tour only. a Joshua iii and iv. Positions 47, 47a. Map 6. 152 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Position 47a. Coptic pilgrims from Egypt bathing in the holy waters of the Jordan You perceive that this is not the rite of baptism, but merely a bath in the river. These are pilgrims who have journeyed, mostly on foot, from Egypt, a distance of two hundred miles. They belong to the Coptic Church, the ancient Christian Church of Egypt. They have come from the border of the Nile to find a more sacred river, whose waters they believe will wash away their sins; and they recall to memory the story of another bath in the river Jordan, which may have been taken here, but with greater probability thirty miles up the river. You remem- ber the vivid narrative concerning Naaman, the Syrian general, who was a leper, and who— 1 -through the sugges- tion of a captive Israelite child — went to seek the great prophet in Israel. 1 Apparently Elisha was living at Sa- maria, in the center of the land, thirty miles north of Jerusalem; for, unlike Elijah, he was a man of the town, and we often find him in Samaria; but Jericho was also one of his homes, and Naaman may have sought him in that city, which belonged to Israel and not to Judah. See the Syrian, as he dismounts from his chariot, in scornful unbelief that such a stream as the Jordan could do more for him than the beautiful rivers in his own Damascus. He stands in the water, dips once, twice, thrice — six times, and yet there is no change in the dull, white, waxen color of his limbs. A seventh plunge in the water! — and lo, his flesh becomes as fair and fresh as that of a little child, and the leper is cleansed! Wherever along the Jordan this event may have taken place, the scene upon which we are looking reminds us of it. * East of the Dead Sea lies the land of Moab. We will cross the Jordan, stand on one of its mountains — the foot- hills of Mount Nebo — at the spot marked 47b, on Map 6, and look up the river Jordan. See how the V-lines are marked on the map. Position 47b. Lower bed of the Jordan, northwest from Moab cliffs to Judean highlands It is a turbid, swiftly flowing stream that rolls at the base of our cliff, lacking the beauty of many famous 1 II Kings vn-14. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 47a, 47b. Map 6. BATHING IN THE JORDAN 153 rivers. You notice how brushwood overhangs its banks on either side, making its shores inaccessible. No doubt in ancient times these growths were kept cleared away, and the shores were cultivated from the river’s margin up to the foot of the hills. You observe that there is a lower and an upper level of the banks. In the distance the plain rises above the river bed. On such a plain, at Abelmeholah, thirty-five miles to the north, the pros- perous farmer Elisha was one day plowing, supervising twelve yoke of oxen in the great field, when Elijah the prophet strode by, and, without a word, flung his skin mantle upon Elisha’s shoulders . 1 The farmer recognized the act as a call, and at once prepared to leave his home and his work, for the wandering life and perilous life of a prophet. Beyond the upper terrace, on which that modern build- ing stands, we see the range which separates the Jordan valley from the central mountain region of Palestine. Those mountains in the distance were the home of Israel and Judah, far more than the valley below them. During most of the Old Testament period the villages in the Jor- dan plain were few and occupied mainly by foreign people. They were unsafe, except when fortified; the farms were defenseless against Arab raiders from the desert, who swept through the ravines on the east. That has been the main reason why this entire plain on each side of the river, which might rival the valley of the Nile in fertility, has been left for ages neglected and now seems barren. Under a strong and just government, such as England gives to Egypt, this landscape might be transformed into gardens. That boat (where an Arab has just fired his rifle, send- ing a puff of smoke into the air) can ascend the river only to the first rapids, not many miles away; it reminds us that a few miles above here David crossed the river in a ferry-boat, when he came home from Mahanaim, after the end of Absalom’s rebellion . 2 As we look over this stream, the plain and the moun- tains, we recall to mind how, at a point not far from this, but on much higher ground, Moses stood and viewed all the land, from the Salt Sea up to Mount Hermon, and then upon the mountain-top lay down to die . 3 From his standpoint (so high as to look over those mountains — 8 Deut. xxxiv. 1 I Kings xixri^i. a II Sam. xix:i8. Position 47b. Map 6. 154 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND of which we can see only the side), Moses may have seen the Canaanite and Amorite cities upon them: Jeri- cho, Jerusalem, Hebron, Shechem. And he saw more — in vision: a prosperous and happy Israel dwelling upon those highlands; and, seeing this, he was content to die upon its summit. We will take our next position (48) on the north- ern shore of the Dead Sea, where Map 6 marks a spot with that number. The diverging lines show that we are to look toward the distant hills of Ju- dah on the southwest. Position 48. On the north shore of the Dead Sea, looking southwest These men on horseback are at the very lowest spot of the earth’s surface open to the sky. This shore of the Dead Sea is nearly thirteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, nearer the center of the earth than any other place in the world. Those hills in the distance are the moun- tains of Judea, southeast of Bethany. The water is shallow just here, and those two men yonder in the edge of the sea might wade out a long distance if they could only stand upright in the water; but you know that it is very dense; one can neither walk in it up to his waist nor sink into it. Though shallow just before us, off to our left, in the north- eastern part of this sea, the water is a little more than thirteen hundred feet deep. The beach is of sand and small pebbles ; notice how it is dented by the hoofs of horses. You know that the old belief was that Sodom and Gomorrah, with three other cities, are lying beneath these waters. 1 But there is no hint for this opinion in the Bible narrative; 1 Genesis xix:24, 25. Positions 47b, 48. Map 6. THE DEAD SEA 155 on the contrary there is strong evidence against it, for, if Abraham could see the plain and its cities from his tenting-place near Hebron, they could not have stood where the sea now lies. * 1 Just north of the Dead Sea there is a great bend in the Jordan, which is supposed by many to surround the plain where the five villages — not cities in the modern sense — were located. Others would identify their site at the southern end of the sea. This sea is not often mentioned in the Bible, yet many of the great men in its history must have looked upon it. Abraham saw it from yonder heights, and so did David many times in his wan- derings. Moses looked down upon it from Mount Nebo in his dying view of the Promised Land; 2 Joshua and his army saw it as they descended from the table-lands of Moab to the plain of Jordan. Eli- jah and Elisha must have viewed it, for they often visited Jericho, only six miles away on the north. 3 Our Lord, as he went up from Jericho on his last visit to Jerusalem, could have seen this blue sur- face. 4 Indeed, there is a wonderful view of it from the summit of the Mount of Olives, where the blue lake looks as though it might be three or four miles distant, down in the valley, but it is al- most eighteen miles away, though the spectator can scarcely believe it. We had such a glimpse from Position 32. For Position 49, main tour, see page 159. * Let us now consult Map 11 once more, follow the western shore of the Dead Sea southward to Engedi, and there fix our next position, marked 48a. 1 Gen. xix:27, 28. 3 II Kings ii:4, 5. 2 Deut. xxxiv:i-3. 4 Luke xix:28, 29. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 48, 48a. Maps 6, 11. TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND 156 Position 48a. South from Engedi along Dead Sea shore to Jebel Usdum If we were looking at the mountains on the east of the Dead Sea, the boundary of Moab, we should conclude that almost everywhere they rise directly out of the water, with scarcely a landing-place at their feet. But here, on the western side, you notice a beach, and the shore rising in terraces up to the foot of the higher mountains, which are from two hundred feet to a mile from the margin of the lake. You see the tents of a tourist camp on the bor- der of a grove. Under those trees is a spring of fresh water, the largest on the western shore of the Dead Sea, and, with its patch of green and its shade, looked upon as a veritable paradise by the wandering Arabs. A nar- row, steep, and twisting trail leads up from here through the mountain pass to Hebron and the main northern road. Up that road David and his men must have climbed many times in search of food, while hiding in the caves which penetrate these mountains . 1 You remember that one day, while they were in the dark background of a cavern they saw a tall, but bent form enter from without; and their hearts beat with quickened pulse; they recognized King Saul, who came inside the cave and lay down to rest. David’s men saw the opportunity of ending their warfare with one blow; but their leader, with true insight, perceived that royal blood on his hands would be hard to wash away; and he restrained their daggers. He cut off a piece of the king’s robe, and, after a little, when Saul was in the valley, and himself on an inaccessible freight, such as you see in the distance yonder, called out to the king, telling him of his danger and of his own mercy . 3 That mercy was prompted by David’s generous nature, and also by his wisdom; for David was not only a warrior, but also a statesman. Follow the line of the mountains ending in a conical point, and in the distance you see another range of hills. That distant height is Jebel Usdum — the “salt mountain,” believed by the natives to be the memorial of Lot’s wife, turned to stone — and not into salt, as the Bible narrative tells . 8 An old tradition was that the five cities of the plain were on the flat now covered with shallow water, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, and that Zoar, where Lot *1 Samuel xxiii: 24 . 8 Genesis xix: 1-27. 2 I Samuel xxivn-22. Position 48a. Map 11. THE DEAD SEA 157 found refuge, stood on the tongue of land which divides the sea into two parts. As we look on yonder peak, it may recall to our memory the fearful doom of a wicked people, and the escape of the solitary servant of God. * For our next view we choose a point on the southwest of the Dead Sea. Map 11 marks the spot 48b, and indi- cates the range of the outlook we are to have. Position 48b. The wilderness south of the Dead Sea, northwest from Ain et Beida to Jebel Usdum We are now near the southeastern shore of the Dead Sea, looking across its southern end. How strangely shaped by nature are those hills of clay and marl directly before us! The nearest line of hills across this ravine at our feet looks like a castle wall, and beyond it one might almost imagine the tents of an army encamped. Still farther away we see the southern end of the Dead Sea — here a shallow lagoon — which the early Hebrews be- lieved covered the ruins of Sodom and its four wicked sister cities. One enthusiastic visitor, a generation ago, claimed to have seen the walls and roofs of the cities un- der the water! Beyond that part of the sea you notice on the right a hill with slightly rounded summit. That is Jebel Usdum (the salt mountain). It stands about seven hundred feet above the level of the water, and rests on a base of crystalline salt, one hundred and fifty feet thick, above which rises a mass of limestone and clay. At the foot of the lake, on the left, we notice a marsh, flooded during the spring rains, but a swamp for most of the year, and dry only during the heat of summer. No one lives in this desolate desert. There is no support for life on land, no fish in the bitter waters of the sea. It may be that this is the region referred to in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the waters, as the marshes to be given over to salt, when the healing stream should transform the Dead Sea itself into living waters. 1 * We pass northward, following the eastern shore of the Dead Sea to a place about seven miles north of the brook Arnon, and four miles inland from the sea itself. The spot is indicated on Map 11 by the number 48c, with 1 Ezekiel xlviim. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 48a, 48b, 4Se. Mnp 11. i5« TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND the usual diverging lines to show which way we are to face. Position 48c. From lonely Machaerus — John’s prison — west across Dead Sea to Judea We are three thousand feet above the level of the Dead Sea, looking westward over a valley that leads down to the shore. These heights are chilly, and the wind blows heavily; but down below, on the surface of the sea, the sun is beating with burning rays, and the vapor is rising from the great valley shut in by mountains on either side. We are standing on the site of a castle built by the As- monean kings of Palestine before the Roman domination, which from its remote situation became a meeting-place of insurgents against the rule of Antipater, and his mightier son. Herod the Great. Herod, however, held the strong- hold in security, and made it a center of authority over the lawless tribes between the desert and the Dead Sea. To us it has a deep interest as the prison-home of John the Baptist. Here the free-hearted son of the wilderness, at home only in the open, and restless in the cities, was sent by the younger Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. 1 If he had a prison window facing toward the west, John the Baptist could see the view that is now before us down below — the blue-green surface of the Dead Sea, ten miles wide, but never a ship sailing upon its heavy waters, which in storms beat like masses of lead. Beyond it he could make out, as we do, the hills of Judea, his boyhood’s home, 2 where he roamed freely, and meditated upon his mission. It is not strange that, shut up within the four walls of a prison, the child of the wil- derness began to question the faith to which he had borne such self-denying splendid testimony in other days; and in his temptation sent disciples to ask the Teacher in Gali- lee, seventy miles distant, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” 3 Here, too, came the clos- ing scene in John’s brief career — the noblest life on earth, save One — cut short to please a dancing girl. 4 These are the pictures that rise before us as we look on this lonely land. 1 Luke 20 . 3 Matt. xi:2-6. 2 Luke i:8o. 4 Matt. xiv:3-i2. Position 48c. Map 11. THE DEAD SEA 159 Consult Map 11 and east from the head of the Dead Sea find Mount Nebo. Near it our next posi- tion (49) is marked in red. Position 49. Mount Nebo, south from Wady Ayun Musa, showing road to Jordan This ravine directly in front is the Wady Ayun Musa, or Valley of Moses’ Spring, a gorge that cuts through the eastern table-land toward the Jordan, near the outlet of that river into the Dead Sea. The rounded elevation before us is Mount Nebo, commanding a view of the river Jordan and the Dead Sea, and beyond the sea and the river the heights of the mountain region from Hebron on the south to Galilee on the north — even a glimpse of Mount Carmel on the northwest, “by the utmost sea,” and of Mount Hermon in the far north. Can you not with the mind’s eye see on that summit a venerable form, standing erect and alone, gazing upon the land of promise, to whose borders he led the host of Israel, though he was not permitted to enter? To look upon the land, and then to lie down upon the mount and die — that was the sublime end of the sublime life of Moses, the man of God. You may have discerned already a trail running across our view, about halfway up the mountain. That was one of the paths by which the Israelites descended from the heights east of the Jordan to their last encampment beside the river. They won a victory over the allied tribes of these mountains, at Jahaz, south of the river Arnon, then went on- ward to this mountain, and here turned westward. We can fill this landscape with the marching host, Position 41). Map 11. l60 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND warriors in front, the Ark of God borne in stately procession by the priests, followed by the families of the tribes, and another band of soldiers with their spears guarding the rear. Desolate and bare these passes and hillsides are now, and such they were then, but during the weeks — perhaps months — in the spring of that year, when the twelve tribes of Israel were marching slowly by, they resounded with voices and were bright with color from the variegated garments of the multitude. For Position 50, main tour, see page 162. * Let us now turn to Map n and follow up the Jordan from the sea to a point nearly halfway to the Sea of Galilee, where the river is joined by the brook Jabbok, then trace the Jabbok itself up to where the map sets the number 49a. There will be our next position. Position 49a. The brook Jabbok (Zerka, the blue river) at one of the main fords We are in the land of Gilead, east of Jordan. The word means “highland,” and. as we look on this steep height before us, we see how appropriately it is named. This stream is the brook Jabbok, now called Zerka (the blue river) from its steel-blue color. The stream rises only eighteen miles from the Jordan, flows at first north- east, past the old Ammonite capital, Rabbah, and in its further course makes almost a half-circle, much of the way through a deep gorge between hills two thousand feet high. Notice the flowering oleanders on the other side of the little river. On the right of them are canes, grow- ing from lower marshlands. We could almost imagine that man, in oriental garb, just crossing the ford, to be Jacob, for his is the name called to mind by this view. The ancient story suggests that he looked at sunset one evening upon these hills; he may have found in his path just such a bunch of flowering oleanders. Near this place he led his caravan across the brook, on the way to * For Supplementary Tour only. [*o.sitioiis 49, 49a. Map 11. THE BROOK JABBOIC 161 Canaan from Haran with his wives and eleven sons. 1 Here he received the news that his brother, Esau, was coming to meet him with a band of four hundred warriors. Jacob was no fighter, as his grandfather, Abraham, had been, when necessity for fighting arose. There was no oppor- tunity for his accustomed craft and duplicity in dealing. He could only cast himself on God, who had promised to stand by his side; therefore, Jacob took up the weapon of prayer, and on that night wielded it well. It may have been in some such cluster of oleanders — certainly not far from it — that he met the angel and wrestled with him, bearing from the scene a broken limb, and a new name — Israel, the Prince of God. Here, too, on the next morning, was the meeting between the brothers, and the noble for- giveness of Esau. * Map ii marks 49b, a spot northward from the Dead Sea seventeen miles, and eastward from the river ten miles. It is at a modern town — Es Salt — upon which we will now look. Position 49b. Es Salt, from the south — a Peraean town still full of homes and business We are still in the region called in the Old Testament Gilead, or Highlands; in the Gospels it was called Peraea, or sometimes “Judea beyond Jordan.” 2 This is one of its prosperous modern villages. See how the buildings rise in successive terraces, each house having its dome. No- tice that height back of the town; it is the opinion of some writers that on that summit stood the “altar of wit- ness,” built by the tribes of the east — Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (east), to commemorate their part in the cam- paign for the conquest of Canaan. 3 You remember at first the report went abroad that these tribes had set up an altar for worship apart from the one at Shiloh, and Joshua was justly indignant, for it would forebode a re- ligious and political division among the twelve tribes. But when he learned that it was simply a cairn of testi- mony, and not an altar of worship, Joshua was satisfied and rejoiced at the token of unity. As we remember that this town before us is in the heart of the New Testament province of Persea, we are 1 Genesis xxxii:i; xxxiii:i7. 3 Joshua xxii:7-34. - Matt. xix:i. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 40n, 40b. Map 11. 1 62 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND led to think of the Saviour’s great preaching tour through this land. It was in the last year of his ministry, and this populous province had not hitherto heard his voice. It is remarkable that no one of the gospels gives the name of a single place visited by Jesus on this journey; and there- fore we may locate some of the events of that tour as taking place at Es Salt. Perhaps down that hill the rich young ruler came to meet Jesus, and ask him, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ?” 1 It may be that here the mothers brought their little ones to receive his blessing, and, though rebuked by his disciples, were welcomed by the Master . 2 It may be that here was spoken that pearl of parables, the story of the Prodigal Son . 8 Reference to Map 11 will show the next place we are to visit, in the old district known as Gilead, and later as Persea. The spot where we are to stand is marked 50, and branching lines show the direction in which we are to face. Position 50. Jerash (Gerasa) in eastern Gilead; looking northward over Roman ruins It needs but a glance to tell us that on these desolate hills stood once a stately, metropolitan city, for all around are the evidences of its great- ness. Yet it is equally evident that this was not an Israelite or Jewish town. Every column tells us that it was Graeco-Roman. There are no tokens of the Orient. That circle of Ionic columns sur- rounded the city forum, where once Greek scholars walked and merchants drove bargains, and public meetings were held. You see a double row of pil- lars extending northward; that marked the princi- 1 Mark x 117-22. 3 Luke xv: 11-32. 2 Mark x: 13-16. Positions 49b, 50. Map 11, JERASH, EASTERN GILEAD 163 pal street, narrow to our eyes, but wide enough for a chariot to pass between the columns on either side, and more than half a mile in length. Do you notice, on the left of the street of columns, four pillars standing in a row? Those were part of the court in front of the tribuna ; in their day they formed three triumphal arches across a wide plaza, where different streets met. And the other columns on the hilltop on the left — those are a few of the two hundred and sixty huge columns that once sur- rounded the temple of Baal, the sun-god. That idol temple alone would prove that this was not an Is- raelite city. In the days of its glory, Jews doubt- less lived here at Gerasa, but they lived as foreign- ers in a heathen center. This was one of the most important in that league of ten cities which constituted the Decapo- lis, and which gave a name to all the region north of the Jabbolc and east of the river Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. Those hills in the distance reveal the cause of the city’s greatness and wealth. That depression in the sky-line at the center marks the great caravan route from Damascus on the north to Jerusalem and Egypt; and the other depression (on the left) shows the road to the Sea of Galilee, northern Palestine, and the Mediterranean at Tyre, Sidon, and Caesarea. At such a junction of great lines of trade and travel a city was sure to arise. And yet this place is not named in the Bible, ex- cept in the expression, “the country of the Gera- senes” — an unconscious tribute to its greatness, showing that it gave a name to the border of the Sea of Galilee, nearly forty miles distant. There is no reason to suppose that Jesus ever visited this place. Position 30. Map 11. 164 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND It was a pagan city, not Jewish ; one of those centers of power which helped to maintain the dominion of Rome over the East. Once those desolate hills were covered with trees, and vineyards, the country seats of the rich Ge- rasenes. The city was in its glory under the Anto- nine emperors, from 140 to 180 A. D., but it de- clined and fell with the decline and fall of the Ro- man Empire. For Position 51, main tour, see pagre 167. * Only a few miles southwest of Gerasa stood a city often mentioned in the Old Testament — Rarnoth Gilead. There will be our next point of view. Map n marks our standpoint 50a, and those long, green lines diverging from it promise a long outlook across the river. Position 50a. From Ramoth Gilead, northwest over Jordan valley toward distant Carmel The place where we are standing is by many identified with Ramoth Gilead, “the double heights of the high- land.” You can see that it is a lofty point, from the fact that we overlook so wide a prospect. If the identification is correct, it is no wonder that battle after battle took place around this hill, for it commanded the Jordan valley; and, from the steepness of its approaches, it was easily defended. This valley immediately before us has been the field of many battles, for this height was the key to all the lands east of the Jordan, and, moreover (before nearby Gerasa in the New Testament age became its successor) Ramoth Gilead controlled the paths of trade and travel between the east and west — the north and south. Ramoth Gilead was one of the cities of refuge, where the involun- tary slayer of a man could find safety from the avenger of blood. 1 Imagine a man, who has without malice killed his neighbor, running across this great amphitheater among the hills, pursued by the next of kin to the slain man! You remember the campaign which the allied kings of Israel and Judah, Ahab and Jehoshaphat, under- took against the Syrians, who held this fortress; that bat- 1 Joshua xx :8. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 50, 50a. Map 11. RAMOTII GILEAD 165 tie was probably fought in the field before us . 1 Fill the valley with the armies of Syrians and Israelites, and see King Jehoshaphat yonder in royal robes leading his array, while King Ahab is in disguise; yet Jehoshaphat lives and Ahab is slain. Over the field went the wounded king’s chariot, leaving a trail of royal blood behind it. And later, we see another man driving furiously in his chariot over the hills and across yonder ravine. It is Jehu, just anointed as king in the besieging camp at Ramoth Gilead, on his way to slay the sons of Ahab and to seize the throne of Israel . 2 Beyond these nearer hills you perceive a plain of much lower level: that is the valley of the Jordan, here about ten miles wide. Perhaps you can catch a few glimpses of the stream here and there, though mostly concealed from our view by the height of its eastern bank and the forests that line it. Of those hills beyond the valley, the nearest are the mountains of Ephraim, and those distant and dimly seen, are “the excellency of Carmel ,” 8 whereon Elijah’s altar stood, on one fateful day . 4 *1 Kings xxii:i-4 and 29-36. 3 Isaiah xxxv:2. 2 II Kings iv:i-28. 4 I Kings xviii: 16-40 Position 50a. Map 11. PART III. FROM THE JORDAN THROUGH SAMARIA [Regular tour, 51-67, including 17 positions. Sup- plementary tour, 5ia-66a, including 13 positions.] Let us go back now down the Jordan Valley to Jericho, near the head of the Dead Sea, and six miles west of the river, and from there follow a road lead- ing up the mountains north of west from the city. Map 2 or 11 shows our next position, marked 51. Position 51. Old road from Jericho to Ai, among the hills of Benjamin We have left the lands on the east of the Jordan, and are again near Jericho. This road, winding among the hills of Benjamin, has a general course a little north of west, although at this moment our view is westward. At the foot of other hills back of us lies Jericho; beyond them — before us — is Ai. How stony and bare are these hillsides! But you can see the remains of ancient terraces, upon which are growing gnarled olive trees, and a scanty vegetation. If we could roll back the curtain of time twenty centuries, we should see those hills regularly laid out in terraces, covered with luxuri- ant growths, and everywhere shaded by fruit trees ; for the soil of these mountain-sides is naturally rich. Positiou 51. Maps 2, 11. 167 1 68 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND You see the path winding through the valley ; it fol- lows the course of a mountain stream, just now a dry, pebbly bed, but after the spring rains a rolling torrent. Would that we might see the procession of people who have walked up and down this road dur- ing the ages! Not far from that hill on the right, between Bethel and Ai, Abraham pitched the tents of his encampment and built his never-forgotten al- tar, soon after his entrance upon the land. He may have stood on yonder hill, and looked over this land- scape. Nearly seven hundred years later, an army sent by Joshua from the smoking ruins of Jericho marched silently by night up this very path, for the ambush which won Ai, and cleared the way for the conquest of Central Palestine. You recall that last journey of Elijah and Elisha together, from the hill country downward to Jericho and the Jordan, when at every place the “sons of the prophets” — disciples of the prophetic cult — said to the younger prophet — “Knowest thou that Jehovah will take away thy master from thy head to-day?” and Elisha answered : “I know it; hold ye your peace.” That last walk led down between these hills. What memories of mighty men — Abraham, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha — haunt this route among the heights! For Position 52, main tour, see page 172. * We will choose our next position at a point about three miles southeast of Ai, and eleven miles from Jericho, a little north of west, still in the tribe-land of Benjamin. Map 2 marks the position. Position 51a. Scene of Jonathan’s victory at Mich- mash — Wady es Suweinit We are looking up the Wady es Suweinit, which is one of the most important means of access from the sea- * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 51, 51a. Maps 11, 2. WADY ES SU WEI NIT 169 coast plain to the mountain region and the Jordan valley. In the days of the Philistine oppression of Israel this pass was controlled by a Philistine garrison, stationed at Michmash, 1 just over the rocky mass on the right and hidden from our view. You notice that two rocks stand on opposite sides of the narrow ravine. That rounded rock on the right was called Bozez, “shining,” perhaps because it caught the rays of the sun. There was the fortress or encampment of the Philistines in the early time of Saul’s reign. The pointed crag on the left was called Seneh — “a thorn” — perhaps from its jagged appear- ance, or from the thorn-bushes growing beside it. 2 Here the Israelites were posted under Saul and his fearless son Jonathan. The Philistine army was weakened by the ab- sence of raiding parties seeking plunder; Jonathan, with his armor-bearer, clambered up the smooth rock on the right yonder, and slew twenty men before the enemies realized that an attack was being made. 3 A sudden alarm seized the Philistines, and they fled over the hills be- yond the valley. The Bible narrative intimates that an earthquake at the time added to the terror. 4 Saul and his army could see the fight and the flight, and joined in the pursuit, driving the Philistines through the pass of Beth-horon back to their own land. This victory seated Saul more firmly upon his throne, and made him for a time the master of the land. * We find on the map (Map 2) Anathoth, about five miles from Michmash, a little west of south, and only three miles northeast of Jerusalem. There will be our next view. Notice how the long lines spreading from 51b promise a fairly extended outlook toward Gilead. Position 51b. Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town — north- east toward the Jordan and Gilead We are now quite near Jerusalem, for this shepherd stands upon Scopus, the northern extension of the Mount of Olives, and his sheep and goats are pasturing upon its slope. Notice how thin is the soil on the hillsides, scarcely covering the white limestone rocks. But it is deeper in the little plain at the foot of the hills, where X I Sam. xiii:5-i6. 4 I Sam. xivris. a I Sam. xiv:4, 5. * For Supplementary Tour only. *1 Sam. xiv:6-i4. Positions 51a, 51b. Map 2. 170 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND those olive-trees are seen. That village of Anathoth, on the rounded hill, could never have been large, for there is no room for growth on these rocky hillsides, and, moreover, the map shows that other villages crowded it all around. If we were on those other hills back of the village we could see the Jordan valley, two thousand feet lower. Small though this place may always have been, it is made illustrious by one great name, that of the prophet Jeremiah, 1 who rose, a solitary mountain-peak in a de- generate age. The one hope of the nation perished when the young reforming king, Josiah, fell in battle on the plain of Esdraelon, 2 and from that dark day no sun of hope arose over Judah. Jeremiah was an intense patriot, but his patriotism was too large for his people to com- prehend; they counted him a traitor, because with true statesmanship he saw that the only hope of Judah lay not in rebellion against the Chaldean empire, but in sub- mission to it. You remember that while Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans, and Jeremiah himself was in prison, he purchased the leasehold of the family property in this village, saying that houses and lands should again be bought, and sold, and inhabited in that land, not- withstanding the desolation that was sweeping over the country. 3 The prophet saw the calamities at hand, but he could see beyond them a return of peace and prosperity with a returning and righteous people. * Let us go over those hills in our field of vision three miles beyond Anathoth to Gibeah, where we will take our next position. (See 51c on Map 2.) Position 51c. Gibeah of Saul, north from field below the modem village This little village, on a hill four miles north of Jerusa- lem, was the home of Saul, the first king of Israel. Here he was born, and here he lived throughout his life. 4 Look at the native seated upon an ass — does it not remind you of that journey which Saul took in search of his father’s asses? 6 The animals were found by another, but Saul found a throne. The village of Gibeah may have looked 1 Jeremiah i:i. 4 I Sam. x:26. 2 II Kings xxiii:28-30. 5 I Sam. ix:i-22. 8 Jeremiah xxxii:6-is. * For Supplementary Tour only. PoHitionH Mb, 51 c. Map 2. GIBEAH OF SAUL 171 in those days, a thousand years before the coming of Christ, very much as it looks now, for it was then, as now, a small place. Can you not picture the tall young son of Kish, rising a head and shoulders above his fellow- countrymen, plowing in these fields, as he was on the day when news arrived that Jabesh-Gilead, across the Jordan, was besieged by the Ammonite hordes ? 1 You remember that at once he stopped his plow, killed his oxen, cut them into twelve pieces, and sent each piece to the headquarters of a tribe, as the summons to immedi- ate action. Those olive-trees on the slope yonder might be descended from earlier olives whose fruit was gathered by the young farmer of Gibeah. David, too, often stood on the hill and looked over these fields; for, before his fight with the Philistine giant, he was for a time a minstrel at the king’s house ; 2 3 and after- ward he lived here for years, since he married Saul’s daughter, and sat at the royal table.* Can you not, with the mind’s eye, see him walking with Prince Jonathan over these fields? And it may have been in such a grove as that before us, or behind this stone in the foreground, that David was hiding while Jonathan shot the arrows as a signal to David that he must hasten away to find safety , 4 and he fled so suddenly that he had not even a sword at his side.® How pathetic were those last years of Saul’s life! Brooding over his calamities, he became at least partially insane. His reign should be estimated, not by those in- glorious years, but by the achievements of his earlier career. From this part of the Judean hill country we turn next to the traditional Ramah, home of Samuel. The word means “high place,” and is given to a number of towns, but we will make our visit at a spot about twelve miles from Shiloh, and eighteen miles from Gibeah. Map 2 or 11 marks our position 52, and indicates the range of our outlook. 4 I Sam. xx:35-42. B I Sam. XXK7-9. 1 1 Sam. xin-14. 2 I Sam. xvi: 14-23. 3 I Sam. xx:24-27. PoMitioDM 51 c, 52 . Mapw 2 , 11 . 172 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Position 52. From Ramah, traditional home of Samuel, looking northeast toward Gilead We are standing upon a ruin of what may have been one of the tallest houses in the village, look- ing over the roofs of the town and the hills of Ben- jamin. You note that between the nearer moun- tains and those in the distance there is a break — that is the Jordan Valley, which we could see more plainly if we were standing on that hill at the right. Those more distant mountains are in Gilead, on the east of Jordan, twenty miles away. We look down on the roofs of the wretched modern village, which stands on the site of Ramah, where tradition says Samuel lived. 1 The houses of that time may have been of the same general form, but were undoubt- edly superior in materials and construction to those below us. We can see that the present houses do not have their doors open directly upon the street, but each on a small court, shut in from the crowd. See that woman in the group down in the street! Her little boy walks in front of her. That might be Hannah, with her young son, starting on their jour- ney to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, twelve miles dis- tant 2 — though, as the wife of a leading citizen, she would be likely to ride upon an ass, with her child before her. These house-roofs are constantly in use for refuge from the crowded street, for quiet and for coolness. You remember that it was on the roof of the house, “at the spring of the day,” that Samuel bad a conference with Saul before anointing him as the destined king of Israel. Ramah may have looked somewhat, but not alto- 1 I Sam. vii : 1 7. 2 I Sam. i: 19-27. Position 52. Maps 2, 11. RAMAH *73 gether, like this in the days of the Judges, when Samuel himself was born and lived, and died. If that woman down there is Hannah on her way to Shiloh with her son, she will come back alone, for Samuel will have been left to grow up in the priest’s dwellings around the Tabernacle, as a child lent to the Lord. How the heart of that lonely mother must have thrilled with joy when the news was borne to her that the long silence of prophecy was broken, and that the Lord had spoken to her boy in Shiloh ! 1 In time he returned to make his home at Ramah. Do you see the tall young Benjamite, Saul, the son of Kish, who has come to inquire about his father’s lost asses, and who was anointed King of Israel by Samuel? 2 Here, too, we may see a com- pany of young men, “sons of the prophets,” gath- ered around Samuel. 3 David is among them for a time, joining in their songs and services — and so perhaps are Gad and Nathan, prophets of the next generation. A school for boys in this Palestine village is full of reminders of child life in Bible times. Position 53. Little folks studying at the village school in Samuel’s home town — Ramah Look at this circle of children, seated upon mats, each with his slate before him, on which he is study- ing Arabic characters. No elaborate equipment of school buildings, desks or blackboards is needed in the simple life of the East — only a shady corner, and a few mats, with a flat slate for writing. The 8 I Sam. xix: 18-24. 1 I Sam. iii:i-2i. 2 I Sam. ix:i ; x:i. Positions 52, 53. Maps 2, 11. 174 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND teacher forms one of the circle. The man with the smiling face is a visitor, who does not certainly sug- gest severity in the discipline. A jar of water is at hand to refresh a thirsty student, just as in our old-time country school a pail of water and a tin dipper were supplied. Perhaps in such a group as this the little Child of Nazareth may have sat, conning a piece of parch- ment bearing on its page a fragment of the Law of the Prophets. In the New Testament time there was a rabbinical rule for the establishment of a boys’ school in every town. The only text-book was the Scriptures of the Old Testament. When the parchment rolls in use at the synagogue were somewhat worn, they were cut up to be studied in the school. The teacher in the school was the offi- cer of the synagogue, known as the chazzan, men- tioned in Luke iv:20 as the “minister,” but in the Revised Version, more accurately called the “at- tendant.” When you read the story of Christ’s visit to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he had been brought up, think that the officer who handed him the roll of the Prophet Isaiah (and after the read- ing received it) may have been the man who had taught the boy Jesus his letters in the village school. This circle may remind us of another group in the Temple at Jerusalem, Saul of Tarsus sitting at the feet of Gamaliel . 1 In the Mosque el Azhar, at Cairo, the great Mohammedan college for study of the Koran, you will see students sitting in a circle like these boys, and the professor one of the num- ber. There, and in this school before us, too, the studying is done aloud, for silent reading is un- 1 Acts xxii:3. Position 53. Map RAMAH 175 known in the East. When Philip met the Ethio- pian treasurer on the desert road , 1 he knew what the man was reading, because every Oriental natur- ally reads, as every schoolboy studies, aloud. For Position 54, main tour, see page 176. * Opportunity is made for us to see part of the compli- cated performances associated with a Palestine wedding. The ceremony which we are to observe might be located almost anywhere in Palestine; but it is. in fact, in the modern town of Ramallah, about three miles southwest of Bethel, and eight miles north of Jerusalem. Map 2 marks the place. Position 53a. Bridegroom and friends going to bring the bride, Ramallah You perceive that this is not an ancient ruin, but a pros- perous modern city. The houses are built of hewn stone, and many are two stories in height. We are just at the edge of the city, looking up a lane with a stone wall on one side, and a garden outside of it; on the right a row of buildings. What is it that attracts so much attention, and brings the inevitable small boys to the roofs and the top of the wall? In accordance with the universal eastern custom, a bridegroom and his friends are on their way to the house of the bride, to bring her, surrounded by maiden friends, to her husband’s house, which is to be her home. She may not henceforth even pass a night at her mother’s house, but if she visits it, must return to her husband’s home before sunset. You notice that the party is exclusively of men, although some girls are looking down from the house-roof, and a few women are stand- ing in the rear of the crowd. To add to the festivities, a legerdemain exhibitor precedes the bridegroom, singing and performing tricks, accompanied by the handclapping of the rest of the company. If we should follow this procession, we would find in- side the house which is their destination, the bride and her girl friends, awaiting the coming of the husband, just as is described in our Lord’s parable of the ten vir- gins. 3 That procession was in the night, when lamps 2 Matt, xxvn-13. 1 Acts viii: 26 - 4 o. * For Supplementary Tour only. Position.* ** 53, 53a. Map 2. 176 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND would need to be in readiness; this is in the daytime. It will be followed by a feast for all the party and their friends. Let us turn aside now to look at an old-time custom of everyday life of the people. Position 54. Women grinding at the mill How completely the life of to-day in these Orien- tal lands copies that of two thousand years ago! Here in the court of a house are two women grind- ing at the mill. 1 See the millstones standing in a small stone trough. The upper one turns around that iron spike, which extends up through that hole in the center. Notice, also, that hole into which the grain is cast. Each woman has a basketful be- side her, and by turns they drop handfuls into the mill. It is turned round and round, you see, by a handle in one side. A large mill like this requires the strength of two women ; a smaller needs only one. See the white flour dropping down into the trough ! But what a slow and laborious process of making flour! There is a grist-mill in almost every town, turned by water-power generally, but the poorer people save expense by having their own little mills. This is regarded as women’s work ; one never sees a man turning the mill-stone. Notice the bracelets on the arms of these women. Their veils are left open more than is usual when men are near, but they are hard at work. See the bright eyes of that little fellow who sits in the doorway with the string of bangles, like coins, fastened round his head! That is a pretty solid door behind him. See the round knocker hanging upon it. And that 1 Matt. xxiv:4i. Position.* 53n, 54. Map 2. WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL 1 77 key-hole : how large the key must be to fit it ! An oriental key is always a clumsy affair, often large enough to be carried upon the shoulder. 1 What do you think of that pavement in the court? It is a fair sample of what you and your horse must walk over in any city which is advanced enough to have its streets paved at all. You notice that the women have spread a mat where they are seated. How forlorn and hopeless they look ! The lot of woman in a land where almost every family is des- perately poor, and where women are regarded' as little better than beasts of burden, is such as to give to all women of the working class a tired, wretched, almost despairing look. After seeing the making of flour, let us now ob- serve the making and baking of bread in this ancient land. Position 55. Bread-making in the court of a Syrian home You can see the dough in the hands of the woman on the right, in the process of being molded ; and in the oven you see some flattened out into thin cakes, somewhat like “pilot-biscuit” among us. The five loaves of one miracle, 2 and the seven loaves of another, 3 were round, flat cakes like these, per- haps six inches across and half an inch in thickness; never cut, but always broken by the hand. You remember that our Lord broke the loaves as he gave them to the disciples. 4 This is the bread in common use among the people. Of course, in the 1 Isaiah xxii:22 3 John virg. 3 Mark viiirs. 4 Matt, xiv : 19. Positions 54, 55. Map 2. i 7 8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND larger cities there are bakeries of the European sort, supplying excellent bread to tourist parties camping everywhere. Our party of fifteen set out from Jeru- salem with a supply of Vienna bread, which was re- plenished at Nazareth, six days later. The oven before us now is made of clay or stone and heated with charcoal, which quickly supplies a strong heat for rapid baking. Wood is scarce in Palestine, where the land is practically treeless, though formerly well forested. To obtain fuel, the poorer people dig up the roots of trees that have been cut down in a former generation ; such roots are sold in bundles in the market-places. Evidently this family owns an oven, which is kept in the court; but in many places are found public ovens, where the women of the neighborhood in turn bake their bread. We are near enough to see the construction of the house, made of stones, care- fully fitted together, large and small, with very little mortar between them. You notice a small opening in the wall. That is the window, letting only a dim light into the room. You remember that, in the parable of the lost piece of money, the woman had to light her lamp before she began to sweep her house; that small window shows the reason . 1 Very little of the family life, except sleeping, takes place within the house. Cooking, serving meals, sewing, all the household work, goes on in the court. You notice the arch overhead ; this forms a porch over the house-front and it opens upon a court sur- rounded with high walls. For Position 56, main tour, see page 182. ‘Luke xv :8. Position 55. Map 2. BEEROTH 179 * Let us now find on Map 2 the location of Beeroth, a town eight miles north of Jerusalem, and two miles south of Bethel. Here we will look at another example of the customs of the Oriental people. Position 55a. An Oriental feast of rice and lamb, Bee- roth Here is a group of men at their meal, which approaches the dignity of a feast, for a lamb has been killed and cooked, and a huge bowl is heaped with rice around the stewed lamb. They are squatting on the floor, a posi- tion more easily taken in the Orient than among us, partly because their trousers are loose and baggy, partly because such has been the eastern posture through untold generations. In the center of the circle stands the one dish from which each guest helps himself with his hands. One has just taken a handful of rice, and another is tear- ing apart some pieces of the lamb. A pitcher of water stands at hand, from which each guest drinks as he de- sires. A mat has been spread upon the rough pavement. Notice in the corner the lamp on its stand; merely a tin cup filled with oil on which floats a wick. 1 Are we to suppose that Jesus and his disciples partook of the Last Supper in this manner? No — they reclined upon couches at three sides of a table, upon which stood the food and the flagon of wine. 2 Each helped himself, somewhat after the manner of these people, i. e., with his hands, and all drank from a common cup. You remember that the traitor, Judas, dipped his bread with his hand into the dish; and that Jesus passed the cup to all in turn. But the feast preparatory to the passover was a religious service, conducted with dignity, and accompanied with the chanting of psalms, very different from the manner of the careless modern people on whom we are now looking. Beeroth, the place of this feast, has its interest. It was one of the ancient Gibeonite towns whose people by a trick made peace with the Israelites at the time of the Conquest, and were saved from the fate of some of the Canaanites. 3 Even after the Exile, a settlement of these people still dwelt at this place. 4 Tradition says also — and there is good reason for accepting it — that Beeroth, * For Supplementary Tour only. 3 Joshua ix:3-i8. 1 Matt. v:i5. 4 Ezra ii:25; Nehem. vii:29. 2 Matt. xxvi:20-29. Position 55a. Map i8o TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND eight miles north of Jerusalem, was the first halting-place of caravans going out of the city; the tradition is that, while pausing here, Joseph and Mary first missed the boy Jesus, and from this place returned to the city to search for him. 1 * While we are at Beeroth, we will notice the manner by which milk is made into butter. Position 55b. Churning butter in a goatskin — Beeroth Here is another group in the corner of a court. The man of the house, with turban wrapped around his head and striped mantle over his shoulders, sits at ease, while his wife is working at the churn. A goatskin bag is hung under three poles, and swung to and fro, keeping the milk in motion. Sometimes the woman takes it upon her lap, and rolls it over and over, with an occasional squeeze. Look at the little fellow dipping his fingers in the pan of milk, and then sucking them. See the sur- prised look on the face of the girl who is coming out of the house, as she finds strangers (who are ourselves) looking at the family group. In all these lands, goats’ milk is preferred to cows’ milk, although both are in use. 2 When milk is referred to in the patriarchal stories. 3 it is doubtless camels’ milk, of which the Arabs are still fond, although few Europeans can drink it. Butter, when named in the Bible, often means sour milk, 4 for, in the East, fresh milk is not con- sidered fit to drink. You remember that Abraham brought forth both milk and butter for the entertainment of the three angels who called at his tent; and that Joel pre- sented to the flying Canaanite general Sisera similar food “in a lordly dish.” * Two or three miles northwest of Ai, and ten or eleven miles north of Jerusalem, we find Map 2 marking a position at Bethel. Position 55c. Rocky Bethel and its olive groves, from the south That little village on yonder hill is Beitin, the modern representative of the ancient Bethel, never a large town, 1 Luke 11:43-45. 4 Judges v:25. 2 Prov. xxvii:27. * For Supplementary Tour only. 8 Genesis xviii:8. Positions 55n, 55 b, 55c. Mnp 2. BET PI EL 181 but held throughout Bible history as a sanctuary. As we look at the place, a procession of Bible heroes passes before us. We see Abraham building his altar before his tent on that hillside when he first entered the land — thus early was Bethel made a holy place . 1 That altar was merely a heap of stones — and you see that there are plenty of them — but it brought Abraham just as near to God as though it had been wrought out of marble. A hundred and fifty years later, a lonely man walked up this hill, leaning upon his staff, and lay down to sleep, his head pillowed upon stones like these at our feet . 2 Glorious the vision that arose before Jacob’s inner eye that night — the ascending stairway, bathed in glory, and the Most High God at its head, looking down with love and promise to that poor wayfarer. We recall the lines of the poet, afterward Archbishop, Alexander: “I saw the Syrian sunset’s meteor-crown Hang over Bethel for a little space; I saw a gentle, wandering boy lie down With tears upon his face. “Sheer up the fathomless transparent blue Rose jasper battlement and crystal wall, Rung all the night air pierced through and through With harps angelical. “And a great ladder was set up the while From earth to heaven with angels on each round, Barques that bore precious freight to earth’s far isle. Or sailed back homeward bound. *********** “Yet to faith’s eye the ladder still is set And angel visitants still come and go: Many bright messengers are moving yet In this dark world below!’’ Long afterward we find Jacob again at Bethel, the head of a large encampment, with eleven sons around him, and flocks without number. Here, again, God spoke to Jacob, assuring him of his continued presence; and Jacob (now 1 Genesis xii:8, xiiin-4. 2 Gen. xxviii : 10-22. Position 55e. 31ap 2. TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND 182 Israel) renamed the place as of old — Bethel — the house of God . 1 When the Israelites entered the land after their sojourn in Egypt, they found a village at this place, named Luz, took it by the treachery of one of its people, and gave it the old name, Bethel . 2 Here Jeroboam, recognizing its value as a sanctuary, built a temple of idols, which be- came the leading place of worship in the south of his kingdom, as Dan was in the north . 3 Great as any name in the annals of Bethel is that of Amos , 4 the prophet of the people, who here proclaimed his message of reform and return to God — a message which produced enduring results, not only in Israel, but throughout the world. Consult the map of the environs of Jerusalem (Map 2) and you will find our fifty-sixth standpoint definitely marked, with guide lines telling that we are to look south in the direction of Jerusalem. Position 56. Gathering tares from wheat in the stony fields of Bethel How vividly this scene brings before us the para- ble of our. Lord! Yonder stands the householder. 6 Ybu can distinguish him by his dress and dignity of carriage. Scattered over the field are the ser- vants. They are mostly women, you perceive, for in this land the labors of the field, as well as of the house, are wrought by the weaker sex. One woman is just wrapping her veil around her face, for she is quite near to us, and we are strangers. The Arab with a gun, on that heap of stones, might be a guard watching for robbers, but in this case I sus- pect that he is merely a visitor. You and I cannot distinguish between the tares and the wheat, but 1 Gen. xxxvn-15. 4 Amos i:i; also viino-17. 2 Judges 1 : 22 - 26 . 6 Matt. xiii:24*30. 3 I Kings xii 126-33. Positions 55c, 5C. Map 2. BETHEL 183 those sharp-eyed workers can ; and that farmer yonder finds it a task of infinite trouble to weed out the false from the true. In our country we should devise some machine to screen them apart, but here labor is cheap, not over six to ten cents per day, and everything is done by hand. How plain the parable becomes when we see it all wrought before our eyes! The wheat has come up thinly in this stony ground, and so reminds us, too, of the parable of the sower . 1 Why, do you sup- pose, did Jesus employ parables so constantly in teaching? Partly to arrest attention, and to set hearers to thinking; partly that they might ever find in common life lessons concerning the Spirit. If those workers in the field had heard Jesus nar- rate this parable, they would remember it, would they not, as they patiently sort out the tares from the wheat? For Position 57, main tour, see page 184. * While we are near Bethel, we will take a long view over the uplands of Ephraim, the once-powerful tribe in the center of the land. Look for the diverging, green lines on Map 2, at the point marked 56a. Position 56a. The hill country of Ephraim, from near Bethel; northwest over Ain Jebrud Even a glance will show that this is a more fertile coun- try than much that we have seen, especially standing in marked contrast with the barren wilderness of Judea. This landscape brings to our view the tribeland of Ephraim, Joshua's own tribe, which found its home in the very center of the Twelve Tribes. 2 Look at the olive- trees everywhere dotting the landscape! These show a country well cared for and prosperous; the olive is the 1 Matt, xiiin-9, 18-23. 3 Joshua xvi:s-io. * For Supplemental* ** Tour only. Positions 50, 50a. Map I&J TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND most profitable growth in the land. The Ephraimites ob- tained the section most fertile, most easily cultivated, and best watered in all Palestine. But it possessed also the drawback that it was most open to attack from nearly every quarter. The rich crops, the abundant grapes and the heavily laden olive-orchards attracted Arabians on the east, who came trooping up through the valleys , 1 and also drew the Philistines and Canaanites on the west; while Judah, Ephraim’s great rival for leadership, was compara- tively safe on her steep heights, with few valleys of in- gress from without. You see a little town on the hill yonder. That is Ain Jebrud, not named in Scripture, un- less it be, as some think, the Ai destroyed by Joshua.* That road which stretches northward across our view looks well traveled, as if used by many, and such is the fact; that is the main road over the mountains between the north and the south. Down that highway came Abra- ham and his little clan, when they entered the land, al- most four thousand years ago.* Possibly the twelve spies, sent out by Moses from Kadesh-Barnea, on the desert border, trod this same road . 4 When the men of the tribe of Dan went northward to seek a new home this was their pathway . 8 When Jesus and his disciples went from Judea to Galilee, and stopped at Jacob’s well, this was their route . 6 What countless multitudes have walked over that path, and from the hills have looked upon this landscape! For our next view (Position 57) we travel north- ward from Bethel ten miles, to where Map 11 sets that number at Shiloh. Position 57. Shiloh, scene of old religious assem- blies, from the southeast We see here a level plain, with a hill rising be- yond it. There is scarcely any doubt that this is the place where the ark rested after its long jour- ney through the wilderness, and where the Taber- 1 Judges vi:i-6. 4 Numbers xiii n-25. 2 Joshua viii: 10-29. 6 Judges xviii:i-3i. 8 Genesis xii:6-<). 8 John iv:i*4. Positions 56a, 57. Maps 2, 11. SHILOH 185 nacle was set up by Joshua . 1 This space would be sufficiently large for the Tabernacle and the homes of the priests around it. Let us in our thoughts clear away the heaps of ruin, and imagine this to be a broad, smooth, grassy field, as Joshua saw it. While looking upon the very place where long-past events occurred, we can, if we try, make them more real to us than in any other way. In place of that square building let us lift up the sacred Tent of Is- rael, with its two rooms, separated by a veil — the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies . 2 Before it in the open air stands the altar of sacrifice, the fire ever smoking upon it, and beside it the laver for washing the offerings. The field is staked off and curtained into a court, but each Israelite can lead his animal for sacrifice to the gate beside the altar, and see it slain by the priest’s hand and laid upon the altar as an offering for his sin. As generations pass by, a rude temple of stone takes the place of the ancient tent, and around it in the sacred enclosure are the rooms for the priests . 3 This field at Shiloh brings before us the entire period from Joshua to Samuel, “the age of the heroes,” when local judges ruled, when Israel lived alone in the mountain region, for the most of the time at peace, but occasionally through lack of a bond between the tribes and a strong government over them, overrun by enemies ; yet upon the whole, an epoch of progress with growing tendencies toward unity. More great men arose during those three centuries than at any other period in Israelite history — men like Othniel and Shamgar, and *1 Sam. Hi: 1. ‘Jeremiah vii.ia-14. * I Sam. iv:i2-i8. Position 57. Map U. l86 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Gideon, and Jephthah. Do you not almost see in front of the ark yonder a venerable man wearing the breastplate, always attended by a little boy? That is Eli, the priest, and the child Samuel is by his side. 1 Here came that startling voice in the dark to the boy, warning of the woe to come upon Eli and his house. Do you see Eli, sitting on his stone seat, nigh to a hundred years old, his heart trembling for the ark of the Lord? 2 When Eli dies, a curtain falls over Shiloh. Was it ravaged by the Philistine warriors? Or did it fall into gradual decay and final desertion when the ark was taken and the sacrifice ceased? We know that five centuries later it was a desolation, for Jere- miah pointed it out to his people as a warning. 3 We travel now eight or nine miles northward from Shiloh to Shechem, and the two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. Map n marks Position 58. But the precise field of our view can be seen still better on the small (sectional) map of the Vale of Shechem (Map 7) which shows the localities in detail. It is well worth while to look up Position 58 with special care, noticing what landmarks are included between the V-lines. Position 58. Gerizim and hills of southern Samaria, south from Mount Ebal over Sychar We are standing upon a slope of Ebal, the high- est mountain in Central Palestine, and the one com- manding the most extensive view. Its summit is covered with limestone rocks, such as you perceive close by. This kind of stone corrodes under the J I Sam. iii:i. 8 Jeremiah vii:i2-i4. 2 I Sam. iv:i2-i8. Positions 57, 58. Maps 11, 7. GERIZIM, SAMARIA 187 sun and rain, and enriches the soil on the slopes and in the valleys. You notice that the landscape be- fore us is under high cultivation. It is well watered from springs around the base of each mountain, and is exceedingly fertile. That mountain on our right across the valley is Gerizim, the holy hill of Samari- tan worship. Notice how the fields are cultivated far up its steep sides. Mount Gerizim is a few feet lower than Ebal, and the view from it is less impressive, but in history it is the more noteworthy of the twin mountains. Over the shoulder of Geri- zim we see the hills of southern Samaria. That white line running along the base of the mountain is the main road between Galilee and Jerusalem. It passes by Shechem, which lies just outside our pres- ent range of view, down at the right. You notice a little village on the plain between the two moun- tains. It is named Balata ; and on the left of it, just within the line of our vision, you see a piece of ground surrounded by a wall. That is the en- closure around Jacob’s Well, which we shall soon visit . 1 Let us now call up the picture of the past which this magnificent view brings before us. We see Abraham and his company coming up that road from the right, after their long journey from Haram, far in the north . 2 You remember it was here in the Vale of Shechem, with these mountains on either side, that Hebrew tradition declares the patriarch first pitched his tent, and piled up his altar of rough stones ; here he first received the promise that the land should be his for ages to come. Almost two centuries later we see the tents of Jacob, Abra- ham’s grandson, standing on the plain below us , 3 3 Genesis xxxiii: 18-20. 1 John iv:5, 6. 2 Genesis xii:s-7- Position 58. Maps 11 fCS TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND rnd we see his servants with infinite pains digging l hat well on our left. But what gives the plain and the mountains the most sacred memory, is the little group of men who come wearily around yon- der shoulder of Gerizim to rest beside the patri- arch’s well ; they leave their leader while they go to the village for food ; and return to find him talk- ing with a Samaritan woman. 1 Part of an ancient Samaritan temple exists to this very day upon that shoulder of Gerizim, but a little too far to the right for us to see it at this moment. The landscape before us is in itself lovely to look upon, but how intensely interesting it becomes as we people it with the men of old ! Let us now descend the mountain and visit that garden which we saw from Mount Ebal, the en- closure around Jacob’s Well. The special map 7 marks our Position 59. Position 59. Mount Gerizim, where the Samari- tans worshiped, southwest from Jacob’s Well We are within the garden wall which surrounds Jacob’s Well. Coming down the steps yonder is a woman of Samaria with her empty water jar upon her head; 2 while immediately in front of us is an- other woman whose jar has been filled and is car- ried erect. From the marble ruins all around you perceive that a church once stood there. It was built in the fourth century, A. D., and was still standing in the eighth century. This shows how early and how continuous is the tradition clinging to the spot. Do you notice the stone wall surround- 1 John iv:7-25. 2 John iv:7. I’csitioiis 58, 50. Maps 11, 7. MOUNT GERIZIM, SAMARIA 189 mg this ground? For long ages it was open and exposed to marauders ; now it is controlled by Greek Catholics, protected, and in some measure restored, as we shall see when we descend to the well itself. The trees are apricots and olives, and in spring the ground here about the well is gay with wild flowers. We are looking toward the southwest. The grain field beyond the wall, extending up the mountain, is a well-cultivated and valuable tract, belonging to a rich Mohammedan, who owns large estates in this neighborhood and who employs peo- ple in the nearby village as laborers. That road which you see beyond the wall leads off toward the right and then southward to Jerusalem. Directly before us rises Mount Gerizim, and directly back of us is Mount Ebal, where we stood for our last view. Gerizim is the sacred mountain of the Samaritans . 1 They claim that Abraham’s offering of Isaac took place here , 2 and not on Mount Moriah, Jerusalem, and a few scholars — notably Dean Stanley — agree with them. Their humble temple can be seen in the distance, on the summit of the mountain, built amid the ruins of a more elaborate structure of for- mer times. We turn from the mountain to look once more at this approach to the well. Eighteen hundred years ago, a young man’s visit made this well immortal and this ground sacred. There were then no ruined chapel and no stone steps ; but the well was here, deeper than it is now. He came here weary, for he had traveled a long journey. He was alone, for his companions had gone to the village to obtain food. He was absorbed in thought when the sound of a 1 John iv:i9, 20. 2 Gen. xxii:i-i4. Position 5 J). Map 7 . 190 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND footstep fell upon his ear and a shadow across his path. He looked up, and a woman was standing here. In one glance he read all her story of sin and shame. It made no difference to him that she was a Samari- tan. He saw her heart, with its longing for a bet- ter nature. He had not come here for work; he had finished the labor of a year in Judea, apparently un- successful, but in reality destined to bring forth an abundant harvest, and was on the way to Galilee to begin another year of even greater activity. He had paused here for an hour’s rest, but when he looked on that woman’s face he forgot his own weariness and hunger in eagerness to save her soul. How wonderfully real that meeting between Christ and the Samaritan woman becomes as we stand here by the very same well, with the very same Mount Gerizim, the seat of the Samaritan worship, before us, and recall one of the replies the woman made to Christ : “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 1 Read once more the entire conversation held on this very spot, and see if it was not one of the most wonderful revela- tions ever given to a soul. Now let us descend by those steps and enter a little chapel almost beneath us, which stands over Jacob’s well. Position 60. A Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well Why, here is a woman of Samaria, just drawing water. Indeed she is a real Samaritan woman, who has come from the very village of Iskar (Sychar of 1 John iv: 1-30. Positions 39, 60. Map 7. at Jacob’s well 191 the Bible), that the woman came from whom Christ met — the town where he was invited to stay, and where he did stay two days . 1 You observe that she has brought her own rope ; her water jar rests on the well curb. We wonder whether the woman who came from Sychar to this well eighteen hundred years ago was dressed in a striped gown, and wore earrings and beads. Certainly those women did not find this copper bucket at hand for drawing water. The well has been cleaned out to a depth of seventy- five feet — debris might be dug out fifty feet further, to make it as it was in ancient days. Look at that stone curb ; what seams and corrugations centuries of water-drawing have worn in it! You see that this is a Greek chapel, from the lamps and pictures under the roof. That curious arrangement on the left is for the purpose of lowering down into the well a coil of lighted magnesium wire, enabling the visitor to see the walls and the water far below. Every traveler now receives a cup of water from the depths of the patriarch’s well, but whoever drinks it runs much risk, for its cleanliness is open to serious question. At present it contains water most of the time, except in midsummer, but if it were fully cleared out it would undoubtedly be a perennial spring. Did you ever think how strange it is that this well should be here? There are forty streams flow- ing down the sides of Gerizim and Ebal, with more water close at hand than any other region in Pales- tine possesses. Why in the world should anybody hew out a well through solid rock — and without blasting powder — one hundred and twenty-five feet 1 John iv 140. Position 00. Mop 7. 192 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND deep and seven and one-half feet at least in diame- ter? Evidently there lived a man here who needed an abundant supply of water, and who found the springs and streams already possessed by rivals — possibly by enemies. Just such was the condition of Jacob in this very vicinity. 1 He was an inter- loper, with great flocks and herds. He would beg or borrow of no man, and undoubtedly he dug this well to be independent of all his neighbors ! How old this well is ! It had been dug at least eighteen hundred years when Christ sat there. With the rock-cut tunnel leading to the Pool of Siloam, and a few old stones in the Temple wall of Jerusalem, it is one of the very, very few works of man wrought in Bible times and enduring down to our own. We will ascend to the summit of Gerizim, and wit- ness a service which takes us back to the times of the Exodus from Egypt, nearly thirteen hundred years before Christ. Position 61. The Passover, as celebrated by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim We are now upon a little plain, about ten min- utes’ walk below Gerizim’s summit. This is the spot where for unknown centuries the Samaritans have celebrated the Feast of the Passover. It is espe- cially noteworthy as observed according to the pre- cise ritual given in the book of Exodus ; 2 a form no longer followed by the Jews. Since the Jewish Tem- ple was destroyed the Jews have omitted the slay- ing of the lamb and the sprinkling of its blood. 3 But on this mountain, a week before the Passover- 1 Genesis xxxiii:i8-2o. * Exodus xii 2 Exodus xii: 1-28. Positions GO, 61. Map 7. THE PASSOVER ON MOUNT CERIZIM 193 day, the Samaritan families repair to this ground and set up their tents. You may see some of the tents now in the distance. They select seven lambs, which are slain in accordance with a prescribed formula. Three of these lambs are being carried in the group before us ; over one of them, as you see, a priest is bending. They will sprinkle the blood of a lamb over the top and on each side of the entrance to every tent, just as the Israelites sprinkled it in the wilderness, although the Jews no more observe that old custom. Then, after roasting the lamb, they will assemble by families for the sacrificial feast. How all this brings before us the Old Testament rite of the Passover. And does it not remind us of that supper on Mount Zion, when our Lord gave the bread and the cup to his disci- ples, setting aside the old Passover, and instituting the new sacramental service of the Holy Com- munion ? 1 A mile and a quarter to the northwest of Jacob’s well we find Nablus, the ancient Shechem. To a company of tired travellers, who had been sitting in the saddle ten hours, one day in March, riding from Bethel, twenty-two miles distant, it seemed ten miles from the well to the town, but the map is more trustworthy than a weary pilgrim’s bones. Let us go to the point indicated on Map 7 and look at this ancient city. Position 62. Shechem, an early center of Hebrew history, looking southwest from Mount Ebal We are now again on Mount Ebal, north of the city Shechem, on one of the lower slopes. Across 1 Matthew xxvi:26-29. Positions 61, 62. Map 7. 194 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND the valley lying on the slope of Mount Gerizim we see the city; and back of it the mountain, with the highlands of southern Samaria beyond. Can you make out the Samaritan temple, that square build- ing on a plateau just below the summit of the moun- tain? Next to Jerusalem, this is the largest city in Pal- estine, containing, it is said, twenty thousand in- habitants; though that is merely an estimate, since the Turks take no census. About a thousand are Christians, Greek, Latin and Protestant, educated in mission schools. There are, it is reported, twen- ty-six soap factories in the town — but all their out- put is exported; little soap is used in Shechem. (There are, however, public baths, which are used with regularity by people of the better sort, at a cost of two cents or thereabouts for each bath.) Olive oil is used largely in the soap-making, and quantities of oil are shipped in leather bottles to Jaffa and Beirut. Everything is carried away on the backs of donkeys or camels over the stony roads between here and the market-ports. Now, let us open our Bible, and see how Shechem enters into its history. When Abraham entered Canaan, on his journey from Haram, he made his first halt here, at “the place of Sichem,” 1 which would indicate that at that early period the place had not yet been settled. But, when Jacob came here from Mesopotamia, with his caravan, he was confronted by a Hivite city. He bought his camping ground on the east of the city, but, on account of a treacherous friend, soon left it, and left also his newly dug well . 2 Both 1 Genesis xii:6. a Genesis xxxiv: 1-3 1. Position G2. Map SHECHEM 195 before and after the war of conquest Joshua held near this city solemn services of consecration. Let us call to mind more fully some of those events. In a natural amphitheater between these moun- tains, Jewish tradition states, Joshua assembled the Israelites on a memorable occasion to read to them the law . 1 Do you know that one who speaks the Ten Commandments in a clear voice, from one side of this valley will be heard distinctly upon the other? Dramatic, indeed, is the ancient story which pic- tures six of the tribes gathered here on Mount Ebal, and six more on Mount Gerizim, which stands opposite, with their wives and their little ones, the ark standing in the midst ; and Joshua’s voice, ris- ing in the air with the words of each law, answered with a loud Amen from the host ! That repre- sented the formal consecration of this land to Je- hovah, the God of Israel ; and for that reason this service was believed to have taken place here, in the very center of the country, and in the very beginning of the conquest. After Joshua’s time, during the period of the judges, this was an important place, and the “bram- ble king,” Abimelech, tried to set up his throne here, but failed . 2 Shechem was the center, too, of the ambitious and powerful tribe of Ephraim, and to placate that tribe Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, came hither to be crowned, but his folly only added to the spirit of tribal jealousy, and led to the great division between Judah and the Ten Tribes . 3 The empire built up by the prowess and statesmanship of David was rent asunder, and in its place stood two rival principalities. 3 Kings xiin-20. 1 Joshua viii :30 3s, xxivn-28. 2 Judges ixn-56. Position 62. Map 7. I96 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND After the captivity Jews and Samaritans for a generation worshipped together, but the stern re- forms of Ezra and Nehemiah cast the Samaritans out of the Temple, and from that time they have maintained their own worship here, though with diminishing numbers. For Position 63, main tour, see page 107. * We have seen Shechem from Mount Ebal. Let us now cross the valley and look at it from Mount Gerizim. Map 7 shows, by the number 62a, where we are to stand, and diverging, green lines make it plain how our next outlook will differ from the last one. Position 62a. Shechem, where the Hebrew empire was divided; looking east past Mount Ebal We are standing on a path that winds up Gerizim, and we are looking at the city from the southwest. The slope beyond the town is Ebal. Those olive-trees are on the bank of a stream which helps to supply water to the plain west of the city. That massive old tower on the left be- longs to a mosque. It was once a Christian church, and some parts of it quite resemble, as you may perceive, the Holy Sepulchre church at Jerusalem. Its oldest portion is more than twelve hundred years old. Do you notice beyond it another mosque which looks like a church, ex- cept for its octagonal minaret? That also was once a Crusaders’ church. The rule is now that no Christian church may be erected within a hundred feet of an es- tablished mosque. It is seldom any individual Christian is allowed to own houses or lands here. The building with two very large arched windows in one corner, at the right of the white minaret, is a factory for making soap; the large building beyond that factory and a little farther to the right is the private house of a rich citizen; it looks bare and unattractive from the outside, but within the walls there is a beautiful garden and courtyard, around which the living rooms are arranged. In such a house there would be found nowadays many pieces of European furniture. The Samaritan synagogue is one of the ordi- * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 62, 62a. Map 7. SHECHEM 197 nary-looking buildings in this southwestern quarter, but there is nothing in its appearance to distinguish it. There are less than two hundred Samaritans here, all that are left of the once-powerful people who for centuries held this central region of Palestine against the Jews. The main reason for their decline was that the little Jewish colony was constantly receiving increase from Jews living abroad until it greatly outnumbered the Samari- tans. Also, after the Christian era, many Samaritans embraced the gospel, and by degrees lost their racial identity. Fifty families in this city alone hold fast to the worship of their fathers. In the city of Shechem we will make our way through narrow and crooked streets to the syna- gogue where the Samaritans still worship ; and will look upon their high priest and one of his treasures. Position 63. Samaritan High Priest, and Penta- teuch roll — Shechem We are looking on the face of the chief repre- sentative of a religious sect, one of the oldest and certainly the smallest in the world. This man and the small company associated with him — less than two hundred in all — are the sole descendants of that remarkable sect. They claim that they are the lineal descendants of the Israelites of old, from a remnant that was left when the tribes were carried into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 B. C., and there are many reasons for accepting this claim. There is no doubt but that they are the representa- tives of the Samaritans of the time of Christ, for whom the Jews had such a deadly hatred. Their physiognomy and characteristics certainly bear a striking resemblance to those of the old Jewish race, far more so than do those of the modern Jew. We should remember that Gerizim is the oldest Positions 62a, 63. Map 7. 198 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND sanctuary in Palestine, that through all the stormy revolutions of the past it has retained its sanctity to the end. Probably there is no locality in which the same worship has been sustained with so little in- terruption for such a period of time — from Abraham to the present day! This priest himself, while he disagrees with the orthodox Jews and disbelieves the message of Christianity, is personally a man with a kindly heart and a tolerant temper. Besides officiating in the synagogue he teaches the children of his people, bringing them up in the ancient faith. His robes are of black and white silk, his head- dress of red. Pie speaks Hebrew and knows a very little English. Some years ago he is said to have declared that he would wait just thirty-eight years longer for the true Messiah — if then the Promised One had not come he would give it up and accept Jesus as indeed the Christ. Strange as it may seem, the old synagogue worship is still carried on here, this High Priest chanting the services in a broken monotone, and swaying himself to and fro. Here, too, is kept with jealous care this ancient copy of the Pentateuch which is before us— one of the very oldest copies in existence. The Samaritan tradition is that it was written by the hand of Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron. You know that the Samaritans accept only the five books of Moses as the true Bible, rejecting all the rest of the Old Testament. Ordinarily the rolls are kept in a silver case, wrapped carefully in pro- tecting cloths. We could not see this precious manuscript except in the presence of the High Priest. As it is raised in the service the people Position 63. Map 7. SHECHEM 199 prostrate themselves and throw oblations toward Gerizim. The Samaritan characters which we can see on this manuscript roll are analogous to the earliest Jewish writings, earlier than the time of Ezra, when the square alphabet was adopted. Al- though this roll differs in some respects from the regular Jewish manuscript, still there are no varia- tions of importance. The old manuscript is written on parchment and the rods and knobs are of silver. Moving northwest, six miles from Nablus, or She- chem, we find Samaria, now called Sebastiyeh, a corruption of its name Sebaste in the Herodian epoch. Note on the general map of Palestine the route we take, and observe on the special map of Samaria (Map 8), that we pause first at some distance from this old royal city. Position 64. Samaria, once proud and beautiful center of the northern kingdom, seen from the south We take our first view of Samaria as it appears framed by an ancient arch on a hill opposite to the city. This woman is probably a Christian, as she wears no veil ; and she rides, as most women of the better class do in Palestine, upon a donkey. When Mary of Nazareth went to visit her cousin, Eliza- beth, on her long journey from Galilee to the hill country of Judea, 1 she probably rode just such an animal as this, and she might have paused at this very place, for it is on the great northern road, trav- eled through all the ages. Yet there is reason to suppose that she would have taken the Roman road 1 Luke i: 39 , 40 . Positions 63, 64. Maps 7, 8 * 200 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND down the Jordan valley, as thereby she could avoid passing through Samaria, an inhospitable land to the Jews. 1 Look northward across the valley dotted with olive-trees, and see the once palatial city of Sa- maria, as it is to-day — less than a hundred low stone houses on the gentle slope of an isolated hill. You notice in the edge of the town a square build- ing with a minaret rising above it. That is the church of John the Baptist, built by Crusaders in the twelfth century, and now turned into a mosque, though partly in ruin. There is an old tradition that John the Baptist was buried there after his martyrdom by Herod Antipas. 2 What a magnifi- cent situation the town possesses ! It stands out prominently in every direction, and from its crown there is a splendid view, turn whichever way you please. King Omri, the father of Ahab, chose wisely when he bought the hill from Shemer, and made it the capital of his kingdom, the Ten Tribes. 3 What memories of Ahab and Jezebel, 4 of Elijah and Elisha, 5 gather around it ! How many sieges it sustained during its two centuries of rule over Israel. You remember how strangely it was de- livered from one blockade, in the days of Elisha the prophet, when its besiegers were seized with sud- den panic and fled down a valley on the right that leads to the Jordan. 6 But it was taken at last in 722 B. C., by the Assyrians under Sargon, when the kingdom of the Ten Tribes was finally blotted from the map, and its people were carried into captivity 1 John ir:9; Luke ix:si- 55 - 4 I Kings xvi:3o, 3*- TT „ 2 Mark vr.14-29. B I Kings xxi : 1 7» 18; II Kings ¥1:19, 20. *1 Kings xvi:23, 24. * II Kings Yi.24; vii:i 5 - Position 64 . Map 8. SAMARIA 201 near the Caspian Sea. 1 We must carefully distin- guish, by the way, between the captivity of Israel in 722 B. C., and that of Judah, 136 years later. 2 The Israelites were never brought back, and their state never arose again ; the Jews were restored after fifty years, and their land enjoyed again peace and prosperity. 3 For Position 65, main tour, see page 205. * We have looked at the hill of Samaria from a dis- tance; let us now stand on the roof of that old church of John the Baptist, and, facing westward, view the mod- ern village near at hand. The map of Samaria (Map 8) shows the relation between our two positions, enabling us to keep our bearings quite definitely. Position 64a. Ancient royal city of Samaria, where Philip preached Christ We are now facing west. The church from the roof of which we are looking down is a ruin. Only the rear has been roofed over and made into a mosque. At our feet we can see the walls and buttresses of the building, over- grown with grass and weeds. Just below us, too, we can see a cellar, with stairs leading down to its interior. That is the ancient pool of Samaria, in former times its princi- pal water supply. Do you remember a warning prophecy of Elijah to King Ahab, that the dogs should lick up his blood? 4 That prophecy was fulfilled at this place, when they washed the blood from the slain king’s chariot in the pool. 5 What a commentary on human greatness is this collection of mud hovels, where once arose the ivory pal- ace of Ahab the King!® Up yonder street, once lined with stately buildings, the king of Israel went riding in his chariot, with his Tyrian queen by his side. T Do you see that skin-clad, long-haired, weird-looking Elijah from the wilderness, stalking unannounced into the presence of 1 II Kings xyii:i-6. 4 Kings xxi:ip-ig. 2 II Kings xxv:i-ii. 6 I Kings xxii:37, 38. •Ezra i : 1-3. 8 I Kings xxii:39. * For Supplementary Tour only. 7 I Kings xvi:3o, 31; xxi:25. Ponitlona 64, 64a. Map 8. 202 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Ahab with his prophetic message? 1 In some house on yonder hillside dwelt Elisha, Elijah’s gentler successor/ Who is it that comes riding in his chariot so furiously up the hill? 3 It is Jehu, the revolutionist, and he is eager for the blood of Ahab’s seventy sons! 4 Beside those huts you will often find marble columns standing in the walls, memories of Samaria’s departed splendor. Perhaps you can see one even now at the corner of a house there on the left. That upper plateau yonder was the site of the great temple of Baal, in Samaria, supported in state by Queen Jezebel. 5 Do you recall that scene of treachery and massacre on those heights after Jehu took the throne? 8 Samaria has its New Testament as well as its Old Tes- tament memories. It has heard its apostles, as well as its prophets, has witnessed its triumphs of grace, as well as of wrath. On this very hillside preached Philip the Evan- gelist, after he was driven out of Jerusalem. 7 The first church of Christ outside of Judea was founded here, and hither came Peter and John to bestow upon its members the gift of the Holy Spirit.* Thus Samaria that repre- sented the old sore of schism between Judah and Israel, represented also its healing in Christ, when Samaritan and Jew became one, clasping the cross. * You notice that the road leading up the hill of Samaria has three branches. We will take the left, and will ascend to the summit of the hill, where archaeologists have un- covered what was once a magnificent temple. Map 8 shows, at 64b, just where to stand to get the best idea of the impressive stairway, which leads up a southern slope to the temple foundations. Position 64b. Stately approach to Herod’s temple, Sa maria This stone stairway leads up the hill to where once stood a magnificent temple, built by Herod the Great, twenty years before the birth of Christ. Just as Solomon, the great king of the early Israelite empire, built a temple to Jehovah on Mount Moriah,® and then built a temple to *1 Kings xviin. 2 II Kings VK24-32. 3 II Kings ix: 14-20. 4 II Kings x: 1-1 1. 5 I Kings xviiirig. 6 II Kings x: 20-27. 7 Acts viii:3-8. 8 Acts viii : 1 4, 15. 8 II Chronicles iii:i. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 64a, 64b. Map 8. SAMARIA 203 idols on the southern summit of the Mount of Olives, 1 so Herod, a thousand years later, like Solomon in the ex- tent of his empire and the number of his new buildings, emulated Solomon in rebuilding the Temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem, and in building also this temple for the wor- ship of the Roman emperor. The adoration of the em- peror was already a regular part of the system of wor- ship in every city of the Roman world, except Jerusalem, and Herod simply followed the custom of the time. Archaeologists who directed the detailed work of exca- vation here found near the foot of these very stairs the marble statue of one of the old Roman emperors, lying where it fell, or was thrown long ago. Paul, in one of his letters, alludes in veiled but unmistakable phraseology to the adoration of an earthly monarch in place of God. 2 You can see that we are on the summit of the hill where King Omri, in the ninth century, B. C., had orig- inally built his royal city. He chose wisely the site for his capital, a hill commanding a noble view in every direction, and readily fortified against invaders. Of course, the- hills around would render it open to assault according to modern methods of warfare, but in ancient times its elevation and the steepness of the ascent made attack exceedingly difficult. Samaria was taken by ene- mies few times in its history, and then only after long sieges. 8 We can see how the ground is cultivated far up the slopes. This is characteristic of Samaria as a section. The soil is rich, and streams and springs are abundant. Central Palestine has ever been a prosperous land. After the fall of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, Samaria fell into decay, and Shechem came into prominence as the head of the Samaritan worship. But a new period of glory arose when, about 40 B. C., Herod the Great became king of all Palestine and Edom. He made Samaria here one of his capital cities, rebuilt it, and made it beautiful. As he owed his power to Augustus Caesar, the first em- peror, he wished to cultivate the imperial friendship in every possible way. He renamed this city Sebaste (the Greek word for Augustus) and on this height he built the imperial temple. The custom of worshiping the em- peror was, before many generations had passed, regarded as an essential token of loyalty. The principal cause of the later imperial persecutions against the Christians, *1 Kings xi :y. 3 II Kings xviirs, 6. 2 II Thessalonians iin-4. Position 04b. 31np 8. 204 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND from 90 to 300 A. D., was that they refused to offer the customary incense and libations of wine before the mon- arch’s statues. It was claimed that, in their adoration of “one Jesus,” they were setting him above the head of the State, and were therefore traitors. 1 As we look upon these foundations of the temple of Augustus, we realize how close was the connection be- tween such temples and the fearful sufferings of the Chris- tians during two hundred later years. That conflict be- tween the Church and the State arose chiefly after St. Paul’s age, yet he clearly foresaw its approach, and warned his churches against it.* We are standing at the southwestern end of the temple; the front of every such building was toward its altar, and the altar stood on the east. So it is now with every Chris- tian cathedral; the entrance may be on the west, but the altar is at the eastern end. The altar outside the Temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem was a large square construction of unhewn stone — no tool having been used upon it — hol- low within, and covered at the top with a grating, through which the ashes of the sacrifices fell. It had to be large enough to contain the carcass of an ox, presented as a burnt offering. But in most of the heathen temples like this one the altar was only a small pedestal, sometimes square, sometimes triangular in form, beautifully carved, and having on the top a hollow place in which the offering of incense and wine was deposited. Try to imagine the splendor of this temple, when it stood with marble col- umns around its four sides, white and glistening in the clear air of the hillsl On the summit of the city hill stood Samaria’s grandest buildings, that is, her chief temple and the palace of her ruler. The excavations made in 1908-9, which brought to light the temple founda- tions, disclosed also the outlines and a fragment of the wall of a very ancient structure which is be- lieved to be the palace of Ahab — perhaps the very one whose extravagant luxury made it in its time a byword for selfish degeneracy. On a terrace a 1 Acts xvii:6-8. * II Thess. ii : 1 -4 ; Acts xx:ag. Portions 64b, 65. Map 8. SAMARIA 205 little below the level of the summit the investigat- ing archaeologists cleared away accumulated soil and debris from the remains of another building, not so old as Ahab’s day, but one of Herod’s con- tributions to the splendor of the city. Map 8 marks with the number 65 a spot where we will stand to see it, facing a little east of north. Position 65. Samaria’s magnificent basilica (court- house) with apse at farther end, seen from southwest For centuries a few of these massive pillars had stood upright in ground near a threshing floor used by people of the modern village of Sebastiyeh. No- body knew of what building they had been a part, but it was assumed that they belonged to a temple of some sort, perhaps secondary in importance to the one on the hilltop. In the course of the work of excavation a detailed study of the ground and of the building stones satisfied the scholars in charge that this was not a temple after all, but a magnifi- cent basilica, or court-house, for the uial of law cases. The large open space before us, wnere we see the paving stones, was the chief place of assem- bly ; a colonnade surrounded it, and the colonnade itself had a mosaic floor. That semi-circular space at the farther (north) end suggests the curve of the apse at the altar end of many old Christian churches. Well it may, for churches in the early times of Christian prosperity were frankly modeled on the Roman basilicas, or court-houses, with which all town-bred people were familiar. There seems to be now no doubt that this court-house before us was one of the structures of Herod’s time. It ad- Po.sltion 65. Map 8. 206 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND joined the forum, or public market-place, connect- ing with the forum by means of a wide doorway on its eastern side. For Position 66, main tour, see pace 207. * On the hillside, at only a few minutes’ walking dis- tance from the court-house, several more stone pillars, ancient and weather-worn, stand in plain sight where they have stood nineteen centuries. Map 8 shows where they are. We will take our next position at the spot marked 65a, beside a path which villagers and travellers often follow. Position 65a. Herod’s street of columns — the remains of magnificent Samaria We are now on the side of the hill and (as the map shows) are facing east. That man in the road yonder has come up from the old town, which we saw from Posi- tion 64a. Between the columns on our left we catch a glimpse of the height which we saw before from the other side; there are the same clumps of trees. Look at that long row of columns. In ancient times that formed one side of a magnificent road, and there was another line of columns to match it on the other side of the highway. Can you imagine that road as it was two thousand years ago, with that double row of pillars wind- ing around the hill, instead of those piles of stone on either side? What views of the valley and the encircling hills were framed between those columns! Like a basilica that we have just seen, this colonnade was built by Herod the Great, who was reigning when Jesus was born, as was also the Emperor Augustus! So here in the heart of the land we find a memorial of the king who was ruling over Palestine, and the emperor who was master of the Roman empire at the very time when the Prince was born, who was destined to become the King of Kings, and ruler of a vaster world than either Herod or Augustus could imagine. 1 We follow a long-used path through the moun- tains, and twelve miles north of Samaria reach the locality of our next outlook. It is set down on the * For Supplementary Tour only. 1 Luke ii : 1 -7 ; Matt. ii:i. Positions 63, 63a, 66. Maps 8, 11. PLAIN OF DOTHAN 207 general map of Palestine (Map n), and the spot where we are to stand is marked 66. We are to look southwest. Position 66. Fertile plain of Dothan, southwest from hill where the town stood in Elisha’s day Those hills which we see in the distance are the mountains of Samaria. These trees dotting the plain are the olive, whose fruit is the great staple of this land. Here and there we see spaces of farm land and pasturage. You notice that some of the higher flanks of the hills are bare and rocky, with scarcely a vestige of soil. If this land possessed the treasure of a wise, patriotic, far-seeing rule, we should soon see here and everywhere the mountain- sides terraced, the earth kept in place and no longer washed away by the spring rains, and the area of tillage constantly climbing higher up those hills. But let us turn back in our vision to a time sev- enteen hundred years before Christ appeared. Then these olive orchards were unplanted, and on the plain were doubtless areas of pasturage and spots of sandy wastes. Inhabitants in those times were few, but the great caravan route from Damascus to Egypt crossed this plain then, just as it does to-day. The Bible student in fancy sees yonder a group of shepherds pasturing their flocks, the sheep and the goats scattered in little groups over the rolling meadows. Over these hills walks a boy alone, fearless of danger, though he has walked, staff in hand, all the way from Hebron, far in the south, more than seventy miles. Never fear, for that boy is one of those who can take care of himself, and perhaps one day he may be taking care of an em- Positiou «6. Map 11. 208 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND pire. He wears a long-sleeved robe, which shows that he is the favorite in his father's house. He has sought for those shepherds far and near, and now they are in sight. Yes, that youth is Joseph, just finding his brothers here on the plain of Dothan . * 1 Somewhere in the field of our vision at this mo- ment, hidden perhaps by these olive-trees, that meet- ing — big with fate — took place. Well, we drop down the stream of time for al- most a thousand years, and look at Dothan again. A little town has grown up since Joseph made his visit here, and in it for a time is dwelling a mighty prophet; one who has healed a leper , 2 and brought a dead child back alive to his mother’s arms , 3 and saved the land more than once from foreign foes . 4 Do you remember that time when Elisha’s servant looked forth and saw the Syrian host surrounding the city ? 5 That array was drawn up right here on this plain ; it was the mountains yonder in the distance that he saw alive with an angelic host of defenders. For Position G7, main tour, see page 209. * Of course, an event like the selling of Joseph would surely have its traditional exact spot. There are many pits and dry cisterns on the hillside and the plain, in any one of which Joseph might have been thrown by his brothers. But, without committing ourselves to an ac- ceptance of the place, let us look at the one which is popu- larly supposed to be authentic. Position 66a. “Joseph’s Well,” Dothan One obstacle to belief in this locality is the fact that this well contains water, while we are expressly told that the pit in which Joseph was placed was dry! How- 1 Genesis xxxvii:i2-i7. 4 II Kings iii:4*25. 2 II Kings v:i-i4. B II Kings vi:8-i7. •II Kings iv:i7*37. * For Supplementary Tour only. l’oultloiiM 00, 00a. Map 11. Joseph’s well, dothan 209 ever, Genesis xxxv ii.24 implies that it was a well which did not flow during the dry season. This stands close to the main caravan road between Damascus and Egypt. These camels resting here may have brought spicery and balm and myrrh from Gilead, on their way to Egypt, and the men certainly look like Ishmaelites, or Bedouin Arabs . 1 Do you notice that there is a trough of stone around the well, which they have filled with water for the camels; just as Rebekah, in a still older Bible story, pro- vided drink for the thirsty animals of her uncle’s servant.* While we do not locate the selling of Joseph by this identical well, we are sure that it was not far from this place. And that event, personal as it may seem, was an important link in a mighty chain. The time had come for the clan of the children of Israel to leave this coun- try. They were in danger of settling down among the people of the land, marrying and being given in marriage to them. If the mingling that began with Esau 3 had gone on, Israel would have lost its religion with its identity, and the Bible story would have been unwritten. But Joseph went down to Egypt, his ability and integrity raised him from a slave’s to a prince’s position, and en- abled him to bring about the sojourn in Egypt, which kept the Israelites apart, gave them rapid increase, brought them under the influence of the highest civiliza- tion of the world, and thus helped to prepare them for their glorious destiny . 4 Just north of Dothan we find the Carmel range of mountains, crossing the land from northwest to southeast. We follow westward along the foot of the range, without crossing it, and, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, we find Caesarea. Map 11 marks there our next position, number 67. Position 67. Caesarea, where Paul was tried before Felix, Festus and Agrippa There is little in sight to suggest that upon this shore, now carpeted with grass, once stood a great city, with its “domed and daring palace,” with its 1 Genesis xxxvii:25. 8 Genesis xxvi:34, 35, and xxviii:6-9. a Genesis xxiv: 19-20. 4 Exodus in-7. PoNiUon* 66 a, 67 . Map 11* 210 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND colonnades, causeways, aqueducts, as the poet sings . 1 That mound before us shows all that is left of a great theater that would seat twenty thousand spectators. It faced the sea, and on each of the two corners by the sea stood a marble tower. Like all the ancient theaters, it was without a roof. That tongue of land running out into the sea is all that remains of a great breakwater, making the harbor safe from northern gales. A small village among ancient ruins is all that remains of old Caesarea. This place is not mentioned in the Old Testa- ment, unless Dor, named in Joshua, stood near its site, which is uncertain . 2 In the Maccabean period, between Old and New Testament times, a castle stood at this place which was called Strato’s Tower. Herod the Great founded the city, built it magnifi- cently, and named it after the emperor, Caesarea. But to distinguish it from another Caesarea, at the foot of Mount Hermon, founded afterward by Her- od’s son Philip, one was called Caesarea-Stratonis (Strato’s Caesarea), and the other Caesarea-Phil- ippi (Philip’s Caesarea). It became, under the Roman rule, the political capital of Palestine, Jeru- salem remaining the religious center. Here lived all the procurators or governors — Pontius Pilate among them had his residence here, and went up to Jerusalem as a precaution against disorder during the Passover season. Let us picture the city of Caesarea, as it stood in all its splendor through the apostolic age, and note some of the men whose names are associated with it. We see Philip the evangelist, after his meeting 1 Robert Browning: Love Among the Ruins. z Joshua xi '.2; Judges 1:27. f'o.sit ion G7. Mu 1 * 8. CAESAREA 21 1 on the desert pathway with the Ethiopian treas- urer, coming up this shore from the south, and mak- ing the town his home, with his four maiden daughters, gifted with prophetic inspiration . 1 Some- where on this desolate plain stood the modest home where Philip entertained for some time a certain Paul of Tarsus, the very Saul who had been active in that persecution which long years before drove Philip out of Jerusalem . 2 Hither came a group of disciples from Jerusalem, to urge Paul not to go to that city, where bonds and imprisonment were awaiting him . 3 And to this place, not many weeks afterward, came again that same Paul, wear- ing a chain , 4 to spend two weary years in prison, tried by Felix, tried again by Festus, over and over declared to be innocent, yet going from the tribunal back to his prison . 5 We see him standing before the judgment-seat, where sit Festus and King Agrippa, with Berenice, his sister; we look at his outstretched arm, still carrying a chain ; 6 we listen to that eloquent appeal, which wins from Agrippa the half-jesting, yet half-earnest words, “A little more, and you will make a Christian of me !” 7 On yonder bay, under the lee of the breakwater, we see a ship standing at the wharf. A throng of chained convicts march sullenly on board — men gathered from the prisons of the provinces to slaughter each other in the amphitheater of Rome; and with them we see the noble Paul, attended by faithful Luke and Aristarchus, setting forth on that voyage 8 fraught with danger, which is to bring him 1 Acts xxi:8, 9. a Acts viii:3*5. 8 Acts xxi: 10-14. 4 Acts xxiv:27. B Acts xxiii:3i-35. •Acts xxvi:29. T Acts xxvi:28. •Acts xxviin, 2. Position 67. Map 11. 212 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND to Rome, long desired and long promised. All these pictures of the past rise before our mental eyes, as we look upon this blue sea and that ruined break- water of dead-and-gone Caesarea. Position 67. Map 11. PART IV. GALILEE, MOUNT LEB- ANON AND DAMASCUS [Regular tour, 68-100, including 33 positions. Supplementary tour, 69a-iooa, including 29 posi- tions.] From Caesarea we go northward to the Carmel range of mountains, which cross the land diagon- ally from northwest to southeast. Just at the end of the mountain range, near the Mediterranean Sea, we take our next position. Map 9 sets the num- ber 68 where we are to stand. Position 68. Haifa and the Bay of Akka, east from Mount Carmel Just before us is an embankment on the end of Mount Carmel, bordered with a high wall, and planted with olive-trees. Do you notice, too, the olives on the lower slopes of the mountain? At the foot of this ridge, here by the sea, we face the western end of the Plain of Esdraelon. From the seashore the plain extends twenty-five miles to the southeast. The town yonder on the shore is Haifa, one of the few places on this coast where ships pause; but here, as at Jaffa, vessels lie at anchor in the open roadstead, and passengers are brought ashore in small boats. The path which we can trace around the mountain, and halfway up the height, is the road to Haifa. Do you notice a modern look to this landscape? Trade has come to this section 213 Position 68. Mup 0. 214 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLV LAND of the land, and it shows contact with the prosper- ous European world. There is here a large and en- terprising German colony, whose enlightened, ener- getic work in various lines of industry is serving as an object lesson to the community as a whole. The German emperor landed here when he visited Pales- tine in 1898. In old times some of the most impressive and beautiful passages in the Books of the Kings were associated with this region. Somewhere on this height of Carmel, Elijah the prophet climbed 1 at the close of that day when Jehovah and Baal met at the two altars. He sent his servant to look to- ward the sea yonder, and then up to the sky, but there was no sign of rain ; drought had shriveled the land for three years. He prayed alone upon the mountain top, and yonder, like a man’s hand, a little cloud arose out of the Mediterranean. That night the people rejoiced, for the ban had been taken from the land, and the long-delayed rain had come 1 On the eastern slope of Mount Carmel is a nat- ural terrace of rock, called by the natives, el Moh- rahah, “the place of sacrifice.” We go there now. The place is marked 69 on Map 9, and the red lines show we are to look far northward across the plain. Position 69. Rock of Elijah’s altar on Mount Car- mel, and the Plain of Esdraelon Yonder stretches away the great plain. This dark ridge close at hand is the southeastern flank 1 I Kings xviii:4i-46. Positions ti&, 69. Map 9. MOUNT CARMEL 215 of Mount Carmel. Do you notice two rocks yonder upon which a flash of light has fallen? Look closely, and to the left of them you may see an opening in the rocks. Within that hollow is a spring that may have supplied the water with which Elijah drenched his altar before the great sacrifice . 1 But in the base of the mountain, not far away, is a larger spring, which is one of the sources of the Kishon, and is more likely to have been used by Elijah. Notice the little plain, strewn with rocks. Only a part of the plain enters our field of vision at this moment, but it is large enough for us to im- agine the multitudes of Israel assembled upon it, King Ahab seated in his chariot among them, to watch the struggle between the solitary prophet of Jehovah and the eight hundred priests of the idol- gods . 2 Notice the plateau where the dragoman points to the rocks with his sword. That is the spot where unvarying tradition declares that Eli- jah’s altar stood. You can imagine the twelve rough stones piled up, the trench dug out of the shallow earth around it, the wood heaped in order, the sacrifice laid upon it . 3 Now see the water brought from yonder spring (or perhaps from the other spring, half a mile away) and poured upon the altar, until it is all dripping and the trench around it is full. Listen now to the prayer of that lonely man of God, and see its answer as the light- ning falls from the blue sky, consuming the offer- ing and licking up the water in the trenches ! There is a moment of awe-stricken silence, and then the cry of the throng goes up, Jehovah, He is God! 4 3 1 Kings xviii:30-32. 4 I Kings xviii:39. 1 I Kings xviii 133. 2 I Kings xviii: 1 9, 20. Position 69. Map 9. 21 6 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND The victory has been won, and the God of Elijah is the God of Israel ! For Position 70, main tour, see page 217. * We pass down over Mount Carmel to the Plain of Esdraelon at the north, and, turning our faces south- ward, we look at “that ancient river, the river Kishon.” 1 Position 69a. The river Kishon, where Elijah slew the prophets of Baal, and Mount Carmel beyond How calmly the little stream winds on its way around the plain. In its general course it follows the direction of Carmel, from the southeast to the northwest. Its many tributary streams water the entire Plain of Es- draelon and make this a garden. There are times after the spring rains when its tide is swollen, and sweeps over these fields like a lake. This peaceful little river has witnessed many scenes of blood. The Canaanite host, under Sisera, were swept in defeat across this plain, when Deborah and Barak won their victory, and horseman and charioteer were swept down together in the current of this river, 2 now so peaceful. Four centuries after De- borah, on the evening of Elijah’s great sacrifice, when the fire fell from heaven, it was beside this river that the priests of Baal met their doom as deceivers of the people. 8 Three hundred years after Elijah, the young king of Judah — Josiah — vainly strove to beat back the host of Egypt on this plain. He fell, and with him fell the last hope of Judah and Jerusalem. 4 Crusaders and Saracens battled here; and Napoleon led his legions to victory in sight of these mountains. In all the earth no place has soaked up so much human blood as this plain of Esdraelon. Let us follow the line of Mount Carmel south- easterly from the Mediterranean, about halfway down, as far as Megiddo. Here the diverging lines on Map 9 will show our next point of view (70) and the direction in which we are to look. * For Supplementary Tour only. 3 I Kings xviii:40. 1 Judges v:2i. 4 II Kings xxiii:29, 30. a Judges v: 19-22. Poaitious 69, 69a, 70. Map 9. MEGIDDO 217 Position 70. The Mound of Megiddo, from the southeast We are looking from the Plain of Esdraelon toward the northwest. That great mound before us stands on a spur of the northern flank of Mount Carmel. It was the old fortress of Megiddo, famous alike in Egyptian and Hebrew history. You can see how it commands the plain, being apparently inac- cessible to attack, and forming headquarters for the control of the region. On every side, except one, the side connecting it with Mount Carmel, and hid- den by the mound from our view, it rises abruptly from the plain, seventy-five feet high. From yonder height every point on the Plain of Esdraelon is plainly to be seen, so that from any quarter an at- tack or a raid over the plain could be watched. For this reason Megiddo was always regarded as the key to this section of the land. One of the few conquering kings of Egypt, Thothmes III, about I 1475 B. C., while the Israelites were in Egypt, fought a great battle here, took the city which then crowned yonder hill, and made it a strong garrison point for the control of northern and central Pales- tine. But the Egyptian power waned, and, when the Israelites came under Joshua, about 1230 B. C., there was no central authority to resist their tri- umphant march. The Israelites, however, were not able to drive out the Canaanites from Megiddo, but accepted tribute from them. 1 By Solomon’s time this place had come under Israelite control, becom- ing the capital of the district. Its ancient fortifica- tions were restored by the wise king, who had an eye to strategic points. 2 Perhaps on the very level 1 Joshua xvii:i2, 13; Judges 1:27, 28. 2 I Kings iv:i2 and ix:i5. Position 70. Map 9. 2l8 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND over which we are looking the noble young Josiah, loyal to his Assyrian overlord, even though Assyria was in its decline, met the hosts of the Egyptian King Necho, was defeated and slain . 1 Rarely was there such sorrow as that which arose over the death of the splendid reformer and hero, King Jo- siah ; for with him perished the last hope of Israelite rule in the land. So many battles were fought on this plain, that it became in Hebrew thought a sym- bol of strife between the powers of good and evil; and in the Book of Revelation , 2 the last great battle between their forces is named as fought at Ar-Mag- gedon — the fortified mountain of Megiddo. For Position 71, main tour, see page 219. * Let us climb to the summit of that mound for our next view. Its access is easy from the farther side — that toward Mount Carmel. We can find our next standpoint marked on Map 9 as Position 70a. Position 70a. Ruined houses and public buildings re- cently excavated at old Megiddo You see in the distance the Plain of Esdraelon, over which we are looking toward the northeast. Towns are few in this district, for the reason that it is so open to attack, especially from the east, whence the Arabs until very recent times have been wont to make raids upon the farms. Just below us are the excavations made by Germans, showing where the ancient city of Megiddo stood. These square pits are the cellars or foundations of houses. How small they are, and what diminutive houses must have stood upon them! We wonder at the discomforts of living in burrows such as these! The passage-ways between these houses are not more than two or three feet wide; although that main street which crosses the town may have been, perhaps, six feet wide. You notice that beyond that street the structures seem 1 II Chronicles xxxv:20-24. * For Supplementary Tour only. 2 Rev. xvi:i6. Positions 70, 70n. Mnp 9. MEGIDDO 219 to have been larger. Probably those were the public buildings. One mass of stones on the right in that section was the temple, and the ruins of pillars are found in front of it. The excavations have shown that the walls of the city were twenty-eight feet thick, and guarded by strong towers. Think of the successive peoples who have lived on this hill — Egyptian soldiers, keeping guard during their short- lived empire; Canaanites following them, and sullenly pay- ing tribute for a time to the victorious Israelites, but later not only independent but oppressing the tribes. A con- tingent probably went out from this city to fight with the Israelites, under Deborah, the chieftainess, and came back in wild flight . 1 Then Solomon’s guards were sta- tioned here, compelling tribute from all this section ; 3 then, again, an Egyptian army was in brief control until the Babylonian rule was fixed over all these lands . 3 How successive waves of empire have swept over the plain and rolled up this now desolate hill! On the Plain of Esdraelon one may see illustrated many of the various ways of living in the East ; and we take an opportunity to observe one of them. Find on Map 11 the diverging lines that mark our outlook from Position 71. Position 71. Four thousand years unchanged — pa- triarchal life in Palestine to-day Here is a scene which takes us back to the times of Abraham, two thousand years before Christ. It is true that we have no record of his dwelling on this ground, but just such an encampment as this might have been seen during his lifetime in the plain between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, or on the mountains between Bethel and Ai or south of He- bron. The Arabs (descended from Abraham through his elder son Ishmael) have lived in this 1 Judges v:i9. 3 II Kings xxiii:28-35 and xxiv:i. a 1 Kings iv:i2. Positions 70n, 71. Mays 9, 11. 220 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND manner through all the centuries, owning no au- thority over their clans except that of their own elders, and moving from place to place at their own sweet will . 1 As an instance, this plain has not been well farmed and cultivated for generations, mainly because Arabs like these, coming up from the desert through the valleys on the east, trample over its fields to find pasturage for their horses and camels. A strong government would put an end to this in- subordination ; and it is said that the nomads are now held under control more firmly than in other days. But does not this scene remind us of Abraham’s clan encamped in just such tents . 2 And you re- member, in the story of Isaac, how at eventide he went out to meditate in the field, and saw the camels coming from the east, bringing him a bride . 3 We can understand, too, how it was that the herdsmen of Abraham and of Lot had a disagreement, and how the land was not able to support both camps , 4 for we see how wide an area even a small encamp- ment will cover when all the living has to be found in the grass of the field, and the flocks and herds must frequently be moved from place to place. Well it was for the descendants of Abraham that they were driven by the famine to dwell in Egypt, and there learned agriculture, which is a step up- ward from grazing, and compels a steadfast abode in one place. If the Israelites had continued no- mads none of the glorious Old Testament history would have taken place, and their annals, like those ■of Arabia, would have been almost a blank. For Position 72, main tour, see page 223. 1 Genesis xvi:7-i2. 8 Genesis xxiv:62-64. 2 Genesis xviii:i*5. 4 Genesis xiii :7-9- Position 71. Map 11. BETH SHAN 221 * On the east of the Plain of Esdraelon we find three mountains, all famed in Bible history — Tabor, on the north, the hill of Moreh in the center, and Gilboa on the south. Just outside the plain on the east, at the border of the Jordan valley, lies Bethshan, or Bethshean. There we will take our next position, marked on Map n as 71a. Notice that the diverging lines promise a long out- look across the plain to Gilboa. Position 71a. Mount Gilboa, and Valley of Jezreel, the scene of Saul’s defeat, from the citadel; Bethshan We are standing on the ancient castle of Bethshan, just in the edge of the Jordan Valley, three miles west of the river. Across the ravine we see a broad expanse of rolling ground. This is the valley of Jezreel, the largest outlet toward the Jordan from the Plain of Esdraelon. Beyond the valley we see the summit of Gilboa, the larg- est of the three mountains which stand like sentinels in a row guarding the great plain. Every part of this land- scape brings to our memory events in Old Testament his- tory. Two great battles were fought near that distant mountain, one at its foot a victory, the other at its sum- mit a defeat, according to tradition. Down that moun- tain at night stole Gideon and his brave three hundred, with their lamps, pitchers and trumpets — strange weapons for war with the Midianite host. 1 And on that same mount Gilboa Saul and his sons fought their last fight with the Philistines. The enemies climbed the steep sides, attacked the Israelites, wounded Saul unto death, and slew his three sons, among them Prince Jonathan. 2 You remember those lines of David’s lamentation, in “The Song of the Bow”: “Ye mountains of Gilboa, Let there be no dew nor rain upon you, neither fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.”* And that valley of Jezreel: up its level paths marched the Midianite hosts for their battle with Gideon; and down it they fled in wild disorder after his night attack. •For Supplementary Tour only. 2 I Samuel xxxin-5. 1 Judges vii:i6-23. 3 II Samuel 1:19-27. Position 71a. Map 11 . 222 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND Up that valley we can almost see Jehu riding furiously in his chariot, to slay a king and win a crown. 1 And Bethshan, where we are viewing this scene: you will re- member that, when the Philistines found the dead body of Saul, they fastened it to the wall of their temple in this place. 2 Ten miles distant across the Jordan is Jabesh-gilead, which had been rescued by Saul early in his reign from the Ammonites. Its grateful people, when they heard of the dishonor done to their benefactor’s body, crossed the river and the valley, took down the corpse, and bore it to their city, to receive honorable burial. *After this scene, with its memories of war, let us seek another landscape on the same plain, which suggests peace. We find Position 71b marked on Map 9, not far from our last point of view. We shall stand by a stream, looking down its course toward Jordan. Position 71b. “By the side of still waters,” on the Plain of Jezreel Look at this peaceful stream meandering in many wind- ings through the plain! See these flocks pasturing on its banks, drinking from its water, resting by its side! Do you notice that the sheep and the goats keep apart,* each flock finding its own pasture-field? There is the shepherd, his staff in his hand. The shepherd knows each sheep and each goat. He is responsible for them all, and if one is lost he must make it good to the owner. If you could look closely at his staff you might find that it was all notched from end to end, for keeping the tally of his flock. He has led them down to drink, and now he is just leading them up to feed on the grassy plain. He does not drive his flock, as shepherds do in our land; he walks before them, gives a peculiar call, and they follow him, forsaking this field for the one which he has chosen. The sheep here are worth two dollars or so apiece. The wool business in this part of Palestine is to-day one of the most important industries in the land. Ten thousand tons of wool are shipped annually from Beirut. The industry has always been familiar to the 1 II Kings ix: 14-24. 3 Matt. xxv:32, 33. 2 I Sam. xxxi:8-i3. * For Supplementary Tour only. Positiona 71a, 71b. Maps 11, 9. PLAIN OF JEZREEL 223 people’s minds. The work of the shepherd is something they all understand. How much there is here to call to mind what the psalm- ist said , 1 and what our Lord said,* about the shepherd and his flock! The figure of the shepherd is a common one in Israel’s literature. The prophets repeatedly declared that Jeho- vah, like a shepherd, would lead back his exiled people. Jesus, in the parable of the lost sheep, gave this figure a universal and more personal meaning. In the familiar twenty-third Psalm the words trans- lated in the O. V., “by the still waters,” mean literally, “to the resting-place.” They call up the figure, not of a slowly flowing, winding stream, of which there were none in Judah, but the spring gushing from the rock in the wilderness and the little pool below, to which the shepherd led his flock for rest and refreshment at noon- tide, or at evening. Let us find on Map 9 the northern end of Mount Gilboa, where the figure 72 and the diverg- ing lines guide us, and there take our next view northward, across the eastern end of the Plain of Esdraelon. Position 72. North from Gilboa, over Jezreel plain to the Sea of Galilee The two people near us are on the northern end of Mount Gilboa. According to one version of the story, not far from this place Gideon's army was encamped, and from it they could see the Midianite tents overspreading the plain. 3 According to the older story, it was near this point that Gideon's brothers were slain, while defending their crops from the marauding Midianites. Impelled by the sacred obligations of the law of blood revenge, Gideon rallied his three hundred 1 Psalms xxiii. 3 Judges vii:i, 2. a John x:i-i8. Positions 71b, 72. Map 9. 224 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND clansmen ; at night they quietly descended to the plain, and ranged themselves in rows on three sides of the Midianite camp, then raised the shout, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” that drove the Midianites in flight. 1 That little village (Nuris) is modern, and has no historical associations, but the elevation beyond it is the Hill of Moreh, near the sides of which the Midianites encamped, just before Gideon’s battle. Can you not, in imagination, fill that open space with Midianite warriors? Now look beyond the plain and the lower hills, and note that rounded mountain. It is Mount Tabor, formerly supposed to have been the place of Christ’s trans- figuration, but not so regarded by scholars of the present generation. Yet that symmetrical hill has definite interest, for on it Deborah the prophetess assembled her army and went forth with Barak to win a victory over the Canaanites, early in the time of the Judges. 2 If we were standing on that hill, just to the right of Mount Tabor, we should see Nazareth, and that fact reminds us that all this ground before was often visited by Jesus, as boy and man. We can scarcely doubt that he stood where we are now standing; that he walked across that plain, and climbed Mount Tabor. From our point of view we catch a glimpse of the Sea of Gali- lee in the distance on the right, and we recall a flood of holy memories around it. We move up to Jezreel, just where the valley meets the plain, and from the site of that ancient city (Position 73) look once more over the plain itself. Map 9 marks the spot where we are to 1 Judges vii:i5-23. 2 Judges iv:i-i4. Positions 72, 73. Map Si. Gideon’s battlefield 225 stand. It is well worth the trouble to consult it and to see just what space of ground is to be included in our field of vision. Position 73. Gideon's battlefield and Hill of Mo- reh, north from Jezreel Can this miserable group of mud-houses be the royal city of Jezreel, where Ahab dwelt in his pal- ace of ivory? This house nearest gives us the plan of many homes of the poorer people in Palestine. It stands, you see, before a court, which is sur- rounded by a mud-wall, though under the mud, both in the court-wall and the house, may be rough stones. There is no window to be seen, and when that rough door is closed, the interior of the house must be dismally dark. You notice a hole in the roof — that is an approach to a chimney, letting out the smoke when a fire is built within. But let us sweep away these squalid houses, and build in their place the palaces of King Ahab and his nobles, which once stood on this height! What a view they had! You remember that ride of Ahab in his char- iot, just after Elijah’s victory over the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, when the prophet ran be- fore the chariot across this very plain, coming from the left . 1 Somewhere on this slope stood Naboth’s vineyard, which cost the owner his life, but later cost the king his own life also . 2 You can readily understand how this point was used as a watch- tower, for in every age the dwellers in this region have been in danger from the wild nomads of the desert on the east. From this point the watchman l I Kings xviii:4i-46. 2 1 Kings xxin-24. Position 73. Map 0. 226 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND saw Jehu’s chariot rushing (from the right) toward this city, when the throne of Ahab’s house went down in blood, and Jehu took the place as king . 1 From a building on this hill (higher than the one before us) Queen Jezebel was thrown down at Je- hu’s command, and her body was devoured by just such dogs as infest every oriental town . 2 With the fall of the house of Ahab, Jezreel seems to have ended its history ; for it is scarcely mentioned after that revolution. For Position 74, main tour, see page 227. * On the northern slope of Mount Gilboa there is a pool, fed by a spring. Beside it will be our next position. Map 9 marks the place with its identifying number. Position 73a. Gideon’s Spring, Mount Gilboa This spring is one of the largest natural fountains in the land. The Bible calls it the Well of Harod, 8 which means “trembling” — we shall find how it gained its name. See that row of stones in the edge of the pool; they are worn smooth by the feet of the people who have stood on them to drink. How ragged are the sides of the mountain that overhang the water! In the early days of the Judges, the Plain of Esdraelon was overrun by the Midianites, from the great eastern desert, 4 just as it has been until recently ravaged by their descendants, the Bedouin Arabs. Then arose the champion Gideon, the greatest figure in the age of the Judges. He sounded the trumpet of liberty, and gathered a little army on these slopes of Mount Gilboa. When his raw recruits looked over the plain below, and saw it black with the tents of their enemies, they trembled. According to the popular version of the story, out of thirty-two thousand of Gideon’s men twenty-two thousand forsook the cause in fear. 6 No wonder that this pool was called the Well of Trembling! Do you recall that origiifal method by which 1 II Kings ix:i 7-26. 8 Judges vii:i. a II Kings ix:3<>-37. 4 Judges vi : 1-6. * For Supplementary Tour only. 5 Judges vii. - 3. Position* 73, 73a. Map 9. Gideon's spring, mount gilboa 227 the story states Gideon chose to select the heroes from his remaining ten thousand men? He forms them in battle array on the heights, then starts them on the march toward the plain, as if to attack the enemy en- camped on the north and west. As if to refresh them for the battle, Gideon halts his band at this spring. Now watch those men drink. Most of them fling aside their shields and spears, and drop down upon their knees. How helpless those thousands would be if the enemy should come climbing up the rocks at that minute of dis- order! But here and there are a few who remain on guard. Holding fast to shield and spear, they plunge into the pool, and lap the water from their hands, ready for the fight, even while drinking . 1 Those are the three hundred heroes whose self-control and courage and fore- thought can be depended on! At Position 72 we looked north from Mount Gil- boa toward the ground associated with stories of Deborah and of Gideon and of Ahab. Now we will return to Gilboa and this time look toward the west. Map 9 plainly marks our range of view by those long V-lines extending from 74. Position 74. Broad, sunny Plain of Esdraelon and Mount Carmel, west from Mount Gilboa We are on one of the northern foothills of Mount Gilboa, whereon stands this grove of prickly pears, growing on the limestone ledges. You notice that the plain is well tilled, and that the crops are prom- ising. That is because the Turkish government has at last awakened to the necessity of giving the farm- ers on this rich soil better protection from the ma- rauding Arabs dwelling on the desert border across the Jordan. Observe two diverging paths which meet just on the right of our field of vision. These 1 Judges vii:5-7. Positions 73a, 74. Map 9. 228 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND are the important roads crossing the plain from east to west ; after passing the Hill of Moreh they go down to the Jordan valley. It is more than likely that the prophet Elijah may have walked over one or both those roads more than once, for they lead to his home on Mount Gilead . 1 The other road you can see crossing the plain northwesterly, toward the little town among the hills. That town is Zerin. Beyond Zerin stretches the plain bounded by the hills of lower Galilee on the right, and by Mount Carmel on the left. The brook Kish- on runs across the plain, following the line of Mount Carmel, but it lies too low for us to see it. For Position 75, main tour, see page 229. * From Mount Gilboa we transfer our point of view to the height immediately north, the Hill of Moreh. Here we fix upon a spot on the northern side of the hill, indi- cated by the number 74a; the diverging, green lines mark how far we can see. Position 74a. Endor, home of the storied witch, and its broad outlook northwest over the Plain of Esdraelon We are on the side of the Hill of Moreh, known by the natives as Neby Duhy, and by tourists as Little Hermon. On the northern slope of the hill we find this village, romantic when looked at from a distance, but, when visited, found to be a filthy and squalid place, fitting home for the witch of Endor, whose story gives it all its in- terest. 2 Looking at the map, we see the place of King Saul’s encampment with his army on Mount Gilboa. All was dark about King Saul, and he had no friend to give him counsel or comfort. He had slain the priests, and could not obtain guidance from their oracle. Samuel was dead; David, once the pillar of his throne, was supposed to be in the camp of his enemies. Saul felt the need of some higher wisdom, and resolved to seek it. At Endor lived a clairvoyant woman, who was believed to have J I Kings xviin. 2 I Samuel xxviii:s- 25 . * For Supplementary Tour only. Positions 74, 74a. Map 9. ENDOR 229 dealings with spirits of the departed. Whatever may have been the powers of such people, we know that their exercise was forbidden under pain of death. But Saul was in such desperate straits that he sought the woman, leaving his camp by night, passing around Gilboa and Moreh to this village on Moreh’s northern slope. Here he had what purports to be an interview with the spirit of the departed prophet; an interview, however, which gave him no hope of success or even of life. How that strange story comes to us, as we look at the very village where that meeting took place! Beyond we see the plain, and in the distance the hills of southern Galilee. Let us take one more view across the Plain of Esdraelon, from the summit of the Hill of Moreh. The figure 75, on Map 9, and the diverging lines will show us where to stand and in what direction to look. Position 75. From Little Hermon, northwest across Plain of Esdraelon to Nazareth among the hills How splendidly the Plain of Esdraelon lies spread out before us! The rounded hill, straight ahead at the farther side of the cultivated ground, is known as the Hill of Precipitation, local tradition associat- ing it with the Gospel story about the resentment aroused in Jesus’ home town by his words in the synagogue one Sabbath day. 1 From that height, as well as from where we are now standing, a broad expanse of Esdraelon plain can be seen. Boys from the town beyond that hill often used to tend sheep and goats in pastures on its flanks. The town itself, with whitewashed house-walls gleaming in the sun- shine, is Nazareth, the home of Joseph and Mary before their marriage, and of Jesus during his youth 1 Luke iv:28-3o. Positions 74a, 75. Map 9. 230 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND and early manhood. 1 The Boy of Nazareth must often have rambled over those hills, and looked from the Hill of Precipitation across this plain. Can you discern the road passing up the ravine at the left of that hill, and mounting toward the town? How many times Jesus must have walked down that path to the plain, and up again to his home! There is another place on the Hill of Moreh (Lit- tle Hermon) which we must visit. With it is asso- ciated a better memory than with Endor on the northwestern slope. We can distinguish it on Map 9 by the name Nain, and the number 76, with long lines spreading toward Mount Tabor. Position 76. Village of Nain, and Mount Tabor This enclosure just below us with its three arches is a sheepfold. Through the day shepherds pasture their flocks on the plain, and at night they lead them to this door. Beside it they stand while the sheep and goats pass one by one under the shep- herd’s staff, on which the shepherd meanwhile keeps the count by touching a notch for each one. These feilahin or peasantry of Palestine can rarely read, and they cannot even count beyond the number five. That woman is smoking one of the long pipes so common in the East. Nain, you see, is a squalid village of twenty Moslem houses ; but it bears even now the name it possessed eighteen centuries ago ; and that Greek church yonder, the most substantial building in the place, commemorates the event which has given this village a name in history. Just outside the town on our right the side of the 1 Luke 1:26, 27; Matt. ii:23. Positions 75, 70. Map 9. NAIN AND MOUNT TABOR 231 hill is pierced with many rock-hewn tombs. You remember the story, which Luke tells, of how our Lord, one day, in his Galilean ministry during the year of popularity, walked up the road from the Jordan valley, which lies outside the range of our vision on the right. At the gate he met a funeral procession — a young man borne to the grave in that hillside . 1 You see his gentle yet authoritative touch to the bier ; you hear his words of consolation to that widowed mother; you listen to his command, which that prostrate form hears and obeys ! Nain needs but one such scene in its history to gild with glory its walls, however humble they may be. Look across the level ground, and note the culti- vated fields in sight. Not many years ago scarcely an acre of the Plain of Esdraelon was tilled, not- withstanding its richness of soil. The Arabs from the East for centuries kept it as the common pas- ture field for their horses and cattle, and would allow no farmers to cultivate it, except a narrow fringe around each village. But recently the ban- ditti have been repressed, and now the district is rapidly becoming farm-land. In the spring it is one vast prairie of green. That goodly mountain in the distance is Tabor, most evenly rounded of all the mountains in Palestine. We may not accept the old tradition that it was the scene of our Saviour’s Transfiguration; that is now definitely fixed by scholars on Mount Hermon, sixty miles to the north. Yet Tabor has the interest of beauty to the tourist, and of history to the Bible student, as we shall soon find when we visit it. For Position 77, main tour, see page 234. 1 Luke vii:i 1 - 16 . Position 76. Map 9. 232 TRAVELLING IN THE HOLY LAND * We will cross that plain, take our stand on Mount Tabor, as our map shows, and from that point look back in this direction. As we are now looking nearly north, we shall then be looking south. See the number 76a on Map 9. Position 76a. Looking south from Mount Tabor to the Hill of Moreh This black-robed, white-hatted figure is a Roman Cath- olic monk. He is pointing toward Endor, still bearing its ancient name. The mountain rising most prominently before us is the Hill of Moreh, from which we have just come. Away at the right is the village of Nain. We can see its one substantial building, the Greek chapel, only a white dot about halfway up the mountain side. The dark foliage just above those cultivated fields on our left locates the village of Endor. There King Saul made the midnight visit, just before his last battle. 1 He came from Mount Gilboa, which we see in the distance, to the left of Little Hermon, crossed the plain between the two mountains, passed through that valley which you see at the eastern end of Little Hermon, rode around to the left, and yonder at Endor under the hill received from the ghost of Samuel the warning of his coming doom! How real the story seems, as we trace on this field the journey of the despairing Saul! If this view reminds us of a disastrous defeat, it re- minds us also of a glorious victory. Right here, where these two figures are standing, Barak gathered his little army to fight the Canaanites, early in the epoch of the Judges. 2 The tents of Sisera were spread out yonder on that plain, which, as we have already recalled, has been the field of many battles — perhaps more than any other plain on earth, from Barak even to Napoleon. But the real general of the Israelite army on that day was not Barak; it was Deborah, the only woman whose name ap- pears on the list of the Judges of Israel. Her spirit aroused the revolt against the Canaanites, her wisdom guided it, her courage supported it, her song commemo- rated it. 8 Down these* slopes at our feet rushed the little army of Israel, over yonder plain toward the right fled the chariots of Sisera and his terror-stricken host, until they were entangled in the marshes of the river Kishon. * For Supplementary Tour only. 2 Judges ivn-24. *1 Samuel xxviii:7-25. 3 Judges vn-31. Position 7